Mixer Dinner Fun

A long time ago, a friend of mine forwarded me an email from someone she knows about an informal group of young professionals coming together to meet each other over dinner. It's called "Mixer Dinners" and it really is a cool concept. Everyone is linked to the girl who created this group by friends or acquaintances. The group is made up of a big clump of lawyers (I got involved via one of them...), a handful of the standard entertainment-industry types (this is LA), and many other normal 20-/30-something non-Lawyer, non-entertainment professionals. Each person sends a profile type thing in to the organizer (LK) and she enters them in a database. The profile includes things like interests, hobbies, age, where you live, and what kinds of food you like. Then every month individual members step up to host a dinner. Hosting means you pick a place and a theme. LK sends out your dinner information to the community and is the funnel by which people are selected to join. Once the guests have been selected, the host makes the reservation and emails directly with the group details for the evening.

On Tuesday night, I was part of a dinner at Casa Escobar in Santa Monica for people who enjoyed the outdoors. I have to admit, I was a little nervous about it. I had no idea what to expect and any situation where you go in meeting people you've never seen before is scary. Not because they could turn out to be hideous (or worse, all perfect and beautiful!) but because you don't want to be the idiot sitting at the bar alone going up to strangers saying, "Are you with mixer dinners?"

I had a bad day at work Tuesday but I pulled myself together and drove the long drive up to Santa Monica. There was no traffic. Seriously. I kept checking local radio stations to ensure that I was still in LA and had not drifted into some other traffic-free world accidentally. Because of the freakish 405 flow, I got to the restaurant an hour before dinner. LK had mentioned she would be in the bar an hour before dinner if anyone wanted to get a drink, so I thought I would stall 15 minutes (not wanting to appear too eager) and then go into the bar. I read my book club book in the car for a bit and then I walked in. Everyone there was over 60. So I grabbed a seat where I could watch people come in, ordered a drink and tried to act like I was okay with being at the bar alone. 45 MINUTES LATER, the rest of the group shows up. And since everyone else was 60+ it was easy to spot them.

There were 9 people--5 guys and 4 girls, and I'm completely serious when I say that everyone was really cool. I wouldn't mind being friends with the girls and of the five guys I would go on a date with three of them. They were all nice, friendly, smart, easy to talk to, and some where even taller then me and cute. Yes girls, there are still nice, cute, single date-able guys in LA, and I now know the secret to meet at least some of them.

At the end of the night, no one really exchanged contact info before we all separated, but a lot of the people in the group had been to other dinners before and knew/recognized each other. And aside from these dinners, there are monthly group events that a lot of people had already met at. Last month it was bowling, this month is going to be wine tasting. So there is a good chance we'll all run into one another again. There were two guys that I liked more than the others, so I hope to see them sooner rather than later.

Towards the end of dinner, LK asked if I wanted to host one and I agreed. So I am hosting a "people who like to travel" dinner! It's going to be on a Thursday in June, probably in the South bay. I can't wait! I hope I get to host some cute guys...I have to say it was so refreshing to meet new good people not related to work and not because you've had too much to drink. I am PRO mixer dinner.