On Tuesday, prix-fixe Valentine’s Day menus and decadent desserts will dominate as restaurants cater to couples. But on any other Tuesday, it’s all about first dates.
The rise in dating apps has created a population full of serial first-daters that flock to Chicago bars and restaurants in droves, turning once-slow eateries into Tinder Tuesday nightspots. The apps have changed the way people date, and caused some establishments to change how they operate.
At The Barrelhouse Flat, Tuesdays used to be one of the slowest nights of the week. Tinder, released in 2012, changed that.
There are no hard and fast numbers to indicate what percentage of revenue comes from people on first dates, but bar manager Jimmy Hibbard estimates dating apps — Tinder, Bumble, you name it — drive about 50 percent of sales at the cocktail bar on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.
Tinder Tuesday falls on Valentine’s Day this year
This Tuesday, prix-fixe Valentine’s Day menus will dominate as restaurants and bars cater to couples. But on any other Tuesday, it’s all about first dates. Matt Hennessey at DryHop Brewers remembers when Tinder Tuesday became a thing.
This Tuesday, prix-fixe Valentine’s Day menus will dominate as restaurants and bars cater to couples. But on any other Tuesday, it’s all about first dates. Matt Hennessey at DryHop Brewers remembers when Tinder Tuesday became a thing.
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It’s a flood of first-daters, and they’re easy to spot. "You know what a first date looks like," Hibbard said. "It’s always right around like 8 p.m. they start coming in."
Their eyes dart from their phones to the other customers walking through the door, trying to match the entering faces with their dating app profile pictures. There’s usually a side hug greeting between the couples, proceeded by the same string of introductory questions, and awkward glances.
And then there’s the marked indecisiveness. "No one will commit to making decisions," Hibbard said, especially when the waiter asks if they want another drink. But he knows that on a first date, the decision to order another round is a loaded question. "’Are you into this or are you not into this?’ basically is what you’re saying," he said.
Hosts and waitstaff are left to smooth out the awkwardness brewing at the tables.
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There’s been a learning curve, said Liz VanLeuwen, director of operations for Bangers and Lace’s three locations. But staff members are now adept at interacting with a new kind of regular customer that has emerged in a dating-app world.
People often pick their dating spot and stick with it, sometimes returning multiple times a week with different dates, VanLeuwen said. Staff members know them and what they drink, but don’t show it.
"You treat that regular different … because you don’t want to give away the game," she said. "You pretend like this is the first time you’ve seen them."
Waiters can also be the first to know if a date’s a bust. If they see a customer whip out their phone while their date is in the restroom and start swiping, it’s a telltale sign they’re browsing a dating app.
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Dating apps have created a world full of serial first daters, and their new habits are affecting the way restaurants operate.
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The financial investment in the search for love is lower these days. People are less apt to devote a three-course meal and an entire evening to one person and are now just grabbing a drink or two.
Tracie Hitz, a 41-year-old blogger who splits her time between Chicago, Indianapolis and Nashville, Tenn., is right there with them. "That’s all we did," she said. "It was all about dinner, and now it’s not."
Hitz, who blogs about dating and how to market yourself, realized after she started using dating apps that she didn’t want to devote her whole evening to a stranger.
That thought process could partially be why it was the bartenders at DryHop Brewers in the Lakeview East neighborhood that first tipped off front of house director Matt Hennessey to the burgeoning Tinder trend. It was late 2013 or early 2014, Hennessey said. DryHop had been open for less than a year.
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As they mixed drinks, the bar staff would hear things in passing that hinted at what would soon become the new dating norm.
"They would notice things like when a date wasn’t going well and somebody might just walk out," Hennessey said. "We’ve seen it all."
amarotti@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @AllyMarotti
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