Atlanta daters are swiping left on apps, right on IRL dating events

“You don’t have enough in common, or you don’t really have enough to go off (of) based on just what someone looks like on an app,” she said. “It’s not enough characters. You can’t know somebody from a tweet.”

Reed Stewart, 27, from Sandy Springs, agrees.

“The apps are just focused on appearance and a couple of quick tidbits,” he said. “The doom swiping is bad. … It’s not super healthy, and I just hate small talk. … I like to get straight to the deep stuff, and it’s really hard to do that online.”

Sarah Stipe from Atlanta said she hated feeling held hostage, stuck on a date with someone for an hour whom she knew in the first 15 minutes was not a match.

Stipe, Stewart and Noble share a common sentiment. According to a Forbes health survey published in July, 78% of dating app users polled were feeling dating app burnout. The Pew Research Center found 46% of dating-app users have had a negative experience with dating apps. But Stipe, Stewart and Noble also share another thing in common: They all recently attended an in-person dating event in metro Atlanta.

As the taste for apps has soured, the taste for face-to-face dating events has sweetened.

From organized dog walking dates, to live dating game shows, to speed dating and group dinners curated by professional matchmakers, a wide variety of IRL dating events are flourishing. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution set out to explore some of the city’s more creative dating events.

‘Game. Set. Match.’

Millennials who grew up watching MTV and VH1 in the ’90s and 2000s might recall a handful of dating shows like “Next,” “Room Raiders,” “Parental Control,” “Blind Date” and “Singled Out.” These delightfully voyeuristic shows proved that watching other people date can be wildly entertaining.

“Game. Set. Match.” — a live dating game show held regularly on stage at the Limelight Theater in Decatur — triggers nostalgia for the bygone dating game era while reviving a similar format.

The show is co-hosted and created by two millennials, Sarah Stipe and Liv Mangiaracina, both Atlanta-based improv comedians in their early 30s who created the game show after they both got fed up with dating. They had both tried dating apps. They were both confident and extroverted people active in social clubs who frequented bars and restaurants. Yet, they couldn’t seem to make romantic connections.

After venting their frustrations to one another ad infinitum, they decided it was time to take action. They imagined creating a space that would make it easier to approach others in flirtatious and friendly conversation.

Credit: Cosby Crittenden

Credit: Cosby Crittenden

“We realized that we might be a little more bold than others in just approaching people,” said Mangiaracina. “How could we create a space that makes it easy to be bold … where you can walk up to a stranger and know everyone is open, but that’s also not as intimidating as a singles event with a lot of pressure.”

Combining their vision with their shared love of improv comedy, Stipe and Mangiaracina cooked up “Game. Set. Match.” They launched the first show in December 2024 and have since hosted 10 shows.

The way the show works, individuals who want to be onstage contestants (called “main daters”) fill out a preshow questionnaire. Stipe and Mangiaracina select one contestant at a time to sit on a couch on stage. The main dater either opts to choose three people from the audience to whom they are attracted, or let the show hosts choose candidates for them. The three chosen candidates take a seat on stools behind the couch on stage.

One by one each candidate joins the main dater on the couch for a Q&A style conversation. When the conversation slows to a halt, or the banter becomes too boring, the show hosts can interject and guide the questions.

In the crowd, attendees are given a green flag and a red flag. When the crowd likes something a main dater or candidate has said, they wave their green flags. When they dislike a dater’s answer, they raise their red flags. These interactive crowd responses can be lively if not rowdy.

Stipe recalls one show during which a contestant said, “I don’t need a therapist. I go to the gym.” Boos and red flags erupted from the crowd. An equally passionate response was witnessed at a July show when a main dater admitted he had just gotten out of a relationship less than 24 hours earlier.

Raucous laughter, charmed swoons and booming boos echo through the theater throughout the roughly two-hour show, which is followed by a guided mix and mingle.

During the mix and mingle portion, crowd members (who can wear a green, yellow or red name tag to denote their openness to dating) pair off with individuals they want to get to know. The hosts ask questions, which the crowd answers using only a green or red flag. The postshow mingle, plus a before-show cocktail hour, offer additional opportunities for connections to be made beyond the staged show.

“There’s such a difference between looking at someone’s profile and meeting them in person,” said Stipe.

“Yes,” Mangiaracina agreed. “You get to actually catch the vibe of who they are.”

While “Game. Set. Match.” doesn’t keep tabs on their daters, Stipe said they know one couple who met sitting next to each other in the crowd that has now been together for more than a year.

“Game. Set. Match,” 9 p.m. Sept. 5. $25. Limelight Theater, 349 Decatur St. SE, Atlanta. gamesetmatch.tix.page.

Pitch-A-Friend

Krista Dillard, 33, from Buckhead, is sick of dating apps. She’s sick of “getting ghosted” by women she invites on dates and of doing “the same thing over and over again.”

In July, she was ready to try something new. Drastically new.

That’s when she decided to let her best friend, Stephanie Groveman, create a splashy slideshow presentation about her for a dating event called Pitch-A-Friend. At the event, friends pitch their friends as datable material in front of a live audience.

As a professional in marketing, Groveman, 34, from Atlanta, was up to the task. She put together a cheerful multimedia presentation with photos, video clips and text detailing — in both serious and humorous ways — why Dillard is girlfriend material.

“This is the most recent photo of Krista I have,” Groveman said, pointing to an image of Dillard projected on stage in front of a crowd of about 100 people at Lore nightclub in Atlanta. “The picture was taken this weekend. So she is actually this adorable right now. She’s 5’5”. But she’s 6’2” in emotional intelligence. … Fun fact: If she was a dog she would either be a Golden Doodle or a Great Dane.”

Groveman’s presentation about Dillard was just one of about a dozen presentations given on stage that night. Each one had its own personality. One presenter pretended to be selling real estate, pitching her best friend’s amenities, lease terms and property disclosures.

Pitch-A-Friend launched in 2022 in Philadelphia and has since taken place in cities across the U.S., South Africa, Canada, Norway, India and Switzerland. Each event — typically at a bar or social venue — follows the same format, but some occasionally focus on a particular demographic.

When Lore nightclub owners, husband-and-wife team Kimberly Turner and Scott Lockhart, were approached by Pitch-A-Friend’s regional organizer Shanda Strong, they felt it was a great fit for their larger goals.

“We are really looking to do more than just the average bar doing average bar things. We really want to create a space for community where people can bring their friends no matter who they are and find a very inclusive space,” said Lockhart. “So this is a perfect example of the kind of stuff that we are trying to do.”

Turner even took the opportunity to participate. She pitched one of her good friends who she said has been a bit too shy and career driven to invest in serious dating.

“He’s amazing. But he’s got some walls, which makes it kind of hard to do the apps,” she said. Convincing him to let her pitch him took a little persuasion. “I was like, ‘Look, worst case scenario you listen to a good friend talk highly of you for three to five minutes. It’s not that bad.’”

Pitch-A-Friend. No events currently scheduled. Follow updates on Instagram @pitchafriend.atlanta. pitch-a-friend.com/atlanta.

Eight at Eight Dinner Club

Eight at Eight is a members’ only dinner club that matches eight people for an 8 p.m. group dinner date. Although the company is not new (it launched in 1998), it has benefited from recent dating app exhaustion.

“Online dating and app-based dating has driven a ton of people to us,” said Eight at Eight founder Sarah Kathryn Walmsley, 49. “Dating apps can be very frustrating. It just feels too commoditized, where you’re just a height or weight or hair color or skin color. When you meet in person, a lot of those parameters go out the window and you can be judged just for your charisma, your personality, your character, your presence.”

Walmsley has been in the business of matchmaking for almost three decades. In her early 20s, when she was a recent graduate of the University of Georgia, Walmsley purchased the Eight at Eight brand, which at the time was just a concept. It had yet to throw a single dinner party.

As a natural social butterfly and magnetic matchmaker who said she started matchmaking as a high schooler growing up in Decatur, Walmsley took the reins and grew the business. Within a few years, she was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey.

Continued success has allowed her to open Eight at Eight branches in New York, D.C. and Chicago, while maintaining her hometown Atlanta branch. Since its founding, Walmsley said Eight at Eight has facilitated matches resulting in more than 400 marriages.

The concept is simple: Eight people (four men, four women) are matched to go on a group dinner date. The group dynamics are planned strategically by professional matchmakers who take into consideration age, life stage, values, temperament, hobbies, educational level and other personal characteristics.

Members of the Eight at Eight club pay an annual fee to attend dinners. Each dater fills out feedback forms after the dinner. Then, if members desire, they can receive feedback through the Eight at Eight matchmakers.

“Feedback is very powerful when you’re dating,” Walmsley said. “Where are your blind spots? … (For example), a lady tells us that she is a real catch and people love her and all sorts of guys like her, but the feedback we get about her is maybe that she comes off as a little bit stuck up, a little bit high maintenance, a little bit tough to please. If she can’t figure out why she’s not getting a second or third date, we can deliver.”

In-person dinner dates also offer daters an opportunity to be surprised by who they connect with.

“A lot of times we’ll have somebody come to the dinner table experience and we’ll think, ‘Oh, that guy’s not what she’s looking for.’ But at the end of the night, he’ll get her number because he’s the one who had the most charming demeanor, while on paper he’s not what she was looking for,” Walmsley said.

Dating app users, Walmsley said, often discount someone too quickly. But in-person dates, especially when curated by someone other than oneself, prevents that pitfall.

“I think (dating apps are) too surface level,” she said. “When people are looking for love on dating apps, they think they’re being selective, but really what they’re doing is opting themselves out of finding good people.”

If daters do, however, have specific requirements such as a particular religious denomination, Walmsley said her individual matchmaking service, One on One Matchmaking, can better accommodate them.

The Eight at Eight club typically has between 250 to 350 members at a time. Members range in age from 22 to 75. The typical demographic is upscale professional.

Roughly three dinners are offered per month plus special events and happy hours. A host introduces groups and provides a complimentary first round of drinks. Dinners are held at a variety of metro Atlanta restaurants.

Matchmaking makes sense, Walmsley said. “People hire personal trainers and hair stylists. … It is so much more fun to have a matchmaker. It is a total luxury to be able to delegate that part of your life.”

Eight at Eight Dinner Club, $750-$1,500 annual fee. 404-888-1118, 8at8.com.

Other IRL dating events

Green Flag Dating. This Atlanta-based organization plans weekly, low-pressure events designed to meet new people including trivia or board game nights, bowling, pickleball, rock climbing, dance lessons and happy hour mingles. greenflagdate.com

Timeleft dinners. Timeleft is an app that curates group dinner dates. Users fill out a personality test, then the app uses an algorithm to match five strangers for a group dinner reservation. Upon arrival, guests at the dinner can play Timeleft’s icebreaker games. After dinner, guests have the option to reconvene at a predetermined bar for after dinner drinks. Timeleft, which started in Portugal in 2023 and launched in Atlanta in May 2024, has hosted 13,000 dinners in 300 cities across 60 countries. timeleft.com

Atlanta Speed Dating. Launched in the U.K. and brought to the States in 2007, the My Cheeky Date Speed Dating and Matchmaking brand has grown an Atlanta following. Events are held by age group at bars and restaurants across Atlanta, including Establishment Bar, Wicked Wolf and Social62. Participants rotate through speed dating sessions over cocktails while utilizing the company’s “Smart-Card” mobile scorecard to help them track who they liked. By midnight, participants make their selections and are notified if their affection was reciprocated. mycheekydate.com/speed-dating-atlanta.

Events and Adventures. This company plans group trips and adventure-centric day activities for singles. The company has taken groups white-water rafting in the Grand Canyon, snorkeling in the Florida Keys and hiking Machu Picchu in Peru. It also has planned daytime adventures to wineries or hot air ballooning. The company has hubs in cities across the U.S. and Canada. eventsandadventures.com.

Singles Game Nights: Several Atlanta establishments host periodic singles game nights, including Puttshack (puttshack.com), Your 3rd Spot (your3rdspot.com) and Battle and Brew (battleandbrew.com). Drinks generally precede organized icebreaker activities and games designed to get people interacting.

Singles Event Apps: Several apps have risen in popularity that specialize in listing singles events. Jigsaw (jigsaw.co) and Thursday (events.getthursday.com/atlanta) are two notables.