Vibe Check: Speed Dating Returns

Didn't get a coveted ticket to last week's speed-dating event? Here's what it was like to be a fly on the wall at Whitman Brewing.

Our second speed-dating event was broken into two sessions—one for singles 21-35 and one for singles 35-50.

Hey, guys. My evil plan—and by “evil” I mean incredibly well-meaning and potentially beneficial to all of humanity—is working. Not only am I getting men to show up to in-person dating events, but I’m making them want to show up. Sorcery, I know.

For those who haven’t been following Saratoga Living’s unlikely rise from media company to bona fide matchmaking service, let me take you back to our first-ever Single in Saratoga event in the fall of 2022 (click here and scroll down to read our recap). We had an impressive turnout for a first-time event: Nearly 50 singles showed up to Bailey’s for the mixer. But of those 50, approximately 43 were women. Even when I told the men in my life that the odds would be ever in their favor, they balked. “This just goes to show that men are too big of wimps to show up to something like that,” one of my guy friends told me. “Myself included.”

A year-and-a-half later, we’ve upped the ante from singles mixers to full-on speed dating à la Hitch and Love on the Spectrum. And while the men were somewhat reluctant to sign up for our February speed-dating event, our most recent edition of Single in Saratoga, at Whitman Brewing, was a different story.

So what goes on in a single man’s head before and after meeting potential future partners?