Local Bar to Host Speed Dating on Valentine's Day

Singles looking for an office romance will have the opportunity to start 20 on Valentine’s Day this year, when the Office Bar holds an hour and a half session of speed dating on Feb. 14.

Twenty woman and 20 men are being sought for the bar’s first speed dating social, which will kick off with a glass of complimentary champagne at the door and include three-minute rounds of conversation between each prospective couple.

Light romantic decoration, including candles, balloons and appropriate music, will create the ambience for the afternoon, and the event will run from 4-6 p.m.

“We’re really trying to maximize the potential of that day,” General Manager Mark Santiago said. “It’s already a romantic day, some people are down in the dumps, they may not know a lot of people here, they may not have been on a date since they’ve been here, or maybe they have lived here for a while and haven’t had any luck. I was just thinking you know, just capitalize on the mood of the day and the spirit of the whole event and just try to make a deeper connection than just exchanging the phone numbers.”

In addition to the champagne, the Office will run cocktail specials during the event, which will be served to the ladies at their tables or the men at the bar as they move from one date to the next between conversations.

At the conclusion of each three-minute session, a small break will allow participants to conclude their conversations and decide how they’d like to proceed.  

“If they want to exchange numbers at that point, they can,” Santiago explained the interim between dates. “I don’t want to make it too formal where it’s a Match.com kind of thing. I just want it to be personal. You come in, spark a conversation…and if you’re attracted to that person, they made you laugh in that three minutes…[exchange] phone numbers.”

The idea behind hosting the afternoon speed dating session came when owner Rachel Partusch was talking to an out-of-towner about different events to promote in the bar.

“The bar scene is for singles and that’s where this came up,” she said. “I’ve been talking to people about is hard to find a quality person in this town to date, and everybody says, ‘Yes.’ Where do you go? Either the bar or church. So, I thought, ‘let’s do speed dating’.”

Partusch has been “fortunate in her love life”, she said, and has never participated in speed dating herself, but she hopes the event will offer singles a new and fun way to meet people, with the opportunity to decide whether or not to take it further.

“I see it every Friday and Saturday night. I see young people in here looking to hook up,” she said.  “But I think that people want more than to hook up. Everybody wants to be loved, but how hard is it to meet somebody? So if you can take a three or five minute conversation and talk to someone…I think you can pretty well tell whether he’s a jerk or she’s a—well, I’m not going to say it.”

Partusch and Santiago have been working together to coordinate the idea, and decided on 4 p.m. as an ideal start time to afford people the opportunity to still go out if a match is made.

“…my big thing was maybe we’ll introduce some people that are new to town on Valentine’s Day and if we do it early enough, maybe they can leave, go home, get fixed up and meet somewhere later for an actual date and…maybe make a first date happen that night,” Santiago said.

The crowd at the Office varies greatly, Santiago said, but generally spans the 24-40 age group. During happy hour, he said, the demographic shifts toward 30-50, and during the evening the crowd is fairly diverse.

“We don’t have any of the young, young crowd, the fresh 21-22 year olds, just because we do sell a lot of higher end liquors here, we do sell a lot of craft beers,” he said.

Partusch described the bar as more of a social club than some of the sports or cowboy bars common around town, and said they generally draw a very well dressed crowd. Although there is no official dress code during the speed dating event, Santiago hopes people will dress to impress.

“Ideally, when you go to meet someone, you want to put on your best face, so I’m expecting people to come, you know, dressed accordingly,” he said. “I don’t expect the guys to be in full suit and ties, but maybe a nice button-up shirt, slacks, something like that. I assume the ladies will come out in whatever they feel most comfortable in, be it a dress or pants and a nice blouse.”

The Office bar is located at 113 E. Concho Ave. Those interested in registering for speed dating may either follow this link, click on the advertisement on the LIVE! website, or drop by the bar during regular business hours and provide a name, email address and telephone number.

Participation in speed dating is free and limited to patrons 21 and up.