Singles Salon + Italian Tasting • Gioia Cafe & Bar • New Haven • 40s + 50s
About this Event
Meeting people in your forties and fifties is mostly bad options. The apps, or a bar where you spend the first hour working out who is even single. This is the alternative. For one evening we have the rooftop at Gioia to ourselves, a room of single adults who are all there for the same reason, and a night structured so the conversation actually happens.
Gioia serves cheerful, Italian-inspired cooking in the heart of Wooster Square, New Haven's Little Italy. The rooftop sits above it all, aperitivi in hand, the old neighborhood spread out below. It is one of the better places in the city to spend an evening, and for this one it is just us.
Everyone on the rooftop is single and in the same chapter you are, so there is none of the usual guesswork about who is available. Most guests come on their own, and you are placed into a group the moment you arrive, so no one stands around by themselves.
The food and the bar
Through the night, Gioia sends out a tasting of their Italian small plates, the wood-fired, made-in-house things they are known for. Think a steady stream of something good to try, not a sit-down dinner, so come having eaten enough to enjoy it rather than lean on it. The bar is the other reason to come early. Gioia's seasonal cocktails are built around Italian ingredients, and the mocktails are every bit as good, so nobody is stuck nursing a soda.
What counts as a good night
You're here to meet someone special, and I hope you do. But some of the best people you'll meet are single friends of your own gender in exactly your situation, and those count too. Come open to both.
How the night runs
It's a full rooftop of single people, and you'll spend it in small groups of three or four, with conversation cards on every table so nobody has to invent an opener.
- Tables: small groups of three or four, never one-on-one
- Rounds: five, fifteen minutes each
- Breaks: two short breaks built in
- Conversation cards: on every table, so no one has to start cold
- Moving: we tell you where to go at every switch
- Final round: by then you've met more than half the room, so the open floor is the easy part
- Length: two and a half hours
The bracelets
At the door you can pick up a bracelet that signals what you're open to. White for meeting friends, amber for something casual, blue for something serious. Wear one, wear a few, or skip them. They save everyone a conversation they'd rather not have.
None of the speed-dating machinery
No scorecard, no rating people, no waiting on a match email to find out if someone liked you back. If you hit it off with someone, you trade numbers in person, like adults. If that's not your style, there's a low-key way to leave your info at the end, but most people never need it.
The details
Thursday, August 20. Doors open at 6:30 and we start promptly at 7:00, so come early to park, head up to the rooftop, get a drink, and settle in. The Salon runs until 9:30. Gioia, 150 Wooster Street, New Haven.
Seats are limited.
Refunds up to 72 hours before the Salon. After that, we move your ticket to the next event you want to attend. If we ever have to reschedule, you get a full refund.
A rooftop over Wooster Square, an easy room of people in exactly your chapter, and Italian small plates all night. Come see who's there.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 71.21
