It started with a Lunch July 2008

Too busy to meet that special someone? It’s Just Lunch has recently launched an “intercity dating” service

Born in Chicago in 1991, IT’S JUST LUNCH (IJL), which brands itself as a dating service for busy professionals, has been operating in Singapore for four years, recently adding Bangkok to its remit. Unlike most agencies, IJL requires clients to turn up for an initial “screening”. (With MD Anisa Hassan, this resembles a part-counselling, part recruiting session.) Then, for a fee (around US$1,300/year; just under US$800 in Bangkok), you receive 12 introductions and the lunching (or dining, or after-work drinking) begins in earnest.

Equally represented by local and expat singles, IJL hopes cross-cultural dating will soon be as commonplace as a weekend mini-break now that the dating pool has doubled with the new launch. As Anisa says: “We know that more and more professionals are open to the idea of meeting interesting people while they’re on business trips, provided that the setting is discreet and tasteful.”

So how does the service really measure up? With the blessing of the agency, a male guinea pig from CONNECT was sent on two IJL dates. This is what he had to say:

“My ?rst date was with an attractive British banker in her early 30s, eloquent, fulfilled in every way except in love. She told me that though she would never join a similar agency back home, she’d signed up with IJL after assessing potential partners from the office and friends-of-friends. My second was also good company, a Singaporean training consultant and “Quantum-Touch” practitioner, who joined the agency several years after a divorce. We spent most of the evening engaged in a surprisingly deep philosophical discussion.”

Although our reporter remains a bachelor, we’re sure that had he not been on a serious journalistic mission, this would not now be the case. www.itsjustlunchsingapore.com