Vancouver has a reputation as a city where it can be hard to meet someone and is resultantly a hotbed of successful businesses helping singles connect.
The owners of Dirty Apron Cooking School are planning to capitalize on this market niche by launching what is essentially a mix between speed dating and a cooking class.
“There’s a common thread among single people we know that they don’t want to go to a club or bar to meet people,” said Karri Schuermans, who owns the cooking school with husband Nico Schuermans and business partner David Robertson. The Schuermans also own the 150-seat Chambar restaurant and are partners in Café Medina.
Dirty Apron plans to launch its first dating-oriented cooking class July 31 and is selling 10 tickets to men and 10 to women.
Students will rotate through prepping stations. Afterward, they will be asked if they want their phone number to be distributed to any other students.
Plenty of Fish is arguably Vancouver’s most successful dating enterprise, given that it attracted 6.1 million unique visitors to its website in May. Owner Markus Frind recently told BIV his enterprise generates tens of millions in revenue.
John Madigan and Robert Madigan’s Teligence operates chat lines such as Live Links, Interactive Male, RedHot Dateline, VibeLine, FonoChat and LavenderLine.
Other Vancouver entrepreneurs include: