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New York Lunch Club offers chance to share meals and more with strangers By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER Associated Press Writer March 29, 2006
He who eats alone, as the old Arab proverb goes, chokes alone. Fortunately for New Yorkers, they will always have somebody to share their meal with at the Lunch Club. A New York institution with more than 8 800 members who have attended hundreds of lunches, brunches, dinners, game nights, gallery tours or book readings, the Lunch Club has become so popular, that it is planning to launch new chapters across the US, Germany, the UK, France and maybe even Dubai. The concept is simple and successful: Strangers meet through an Internet service, come together and share a meal - "because eating alone is boring", according to the organisation's slogan. At a recent lunch in Manhattan, 14 participants met at trendy Moroccan-Israeli restaurant, Mogador. Most of them did not know each other. "I moved to the city a year ago and wanted to meet people," said Stephanie Wagner (28), a registered nurse who works at night and has attended several Lunch Club events. "Each one of them has been a blast and I actually made some friends here that I still keep in touch with through the homepage." Next to Wagner sat Todd Gareiss (35), a property owner who administers his buildings in Vermont. He has lived in New York for 15 years but this was his first time at the Lunch Club. "I get bored during the day because I am not working and all my friends are busy," said Gareiss. "I really enjoyed the company and the conversation today. It's nice how they introduce you right away." The Lunch Club is a free service that offers all different kinds of social gatherings - from speed-friending to chocolate-tasting or yoga workshops. Newcomers sign up online and fill out a profile. They receive invitations for the events and can also communicate with each other on the web. "People from all walks of life meet at our events and become friends," said Jared Nissim (32), who created the lunch meetings in December 2001. "However, if you're looking for romance, you're wrong. We're not a dating service." Nissim first posted an ad on CraigsList, a free online bulletin board that has branches in more than 100 US cities and over a dozen countries. He asked for "complete and total strangers to have lunch with me" because at that time he was working from home as a technical writer and spent all day by himself. "There was a real void in my life then," Nissim remembered as he bit into his chicken sandwich - one of his favourite dishes at Mogador. At the first lunch, only three people showed up. But they enjoyed the meal and the company so much that they kept posting new ads for get-togethers and as the lunch crowd grew bigger and bigger, Nissim created his own web page and offered additional events. At meetings like the original Lunch Club, which usually take place every other Wednesday, participants only pay for what they eat and drink. Then there are the so-called premium events with admission fees like speed-friending, which costs $15 (about R94) and includes one free drink. Similar to speed dating, participants are matched for five minutes at a time before they move on to the next table and meet somebody new. The goal is to meet as many new people as possible during one evening. For the last two years, Nissim has made the Lunch Club his full-time job. "I made a lot more money as a tech writer," he said. "But now I feel I am making a difference in other peoples' lives by building up a community." Recently, the Lunch Club launched two official chapters in Boston and Washington DC. "I don't really have a business model, so right now they are not paying me anything," Nissim explained. However, he is concerned that some entrepreneurs might use his idea only to make money and not as a way of building an urban community. "I am willing to give people the benefit of the doubt," he said. "But they have to understand that this endeavour will only work out if they are really committed to it." Nissim is negotiating the opening of a Lunch Club in San Francisco and has also had several offers from Germany, the UK, France and Dubai. The German Lunch Club is going to launch in a few weeks in either Berlin, Munich or Düsseldorf, Nissim said. Opening dates for the other countries are not yet set,
but Nissim said he was hopeful his idea would bring together strangers in many
different countries one day: "It would be awesome if the Lunch Club would
go global."
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