Grouper Like the Fish?

Happy Friday Everyone! Gosh it feels like this week took so long to be over! I hope everyone is excited for the weekend and cannot wait for it to be 5pm.. I know I can't.

Well I promised a great post for all walks of life and I believe I will deliver today. What do you think of when you first here Grouper? A bizarre fish....a weird internet tool...surely not a social club that sets up a group of girls and a group of guys.

Ladies and Gentlemen that is just what it is. Grouper is a "Social Club" that matches up two people based on their Facebook profiles. They setup a date for them to meet for drinks, but the best part is they're not alone, they get to both bring two friends along.

I was a little skeptic about a year ago when we heard about it from a friend that wanted to try but I thought I'd give it a shot after I read about it again on my daily email from Thrillist. Grouper originated in NYC and has had great success over the past year or so with setting up local singles.

Last night was my first. Picture this. My two wing women and myself head out to Gilt Bar for a few pre- grouper drinks and food in the pouring Chicago rain. Our date was at 8pm in Logan Square so we had about an hour to get ourselves a little relaxed before we headed over. After some delicious "Bee's Knees" Cocktails and a few appetizers we ventured out to meet our men at Letizia's Fiore. (Side note.. when I first found out we were going there I thought they were sending us to a Bakery but this is a very quaint Italian restaurant and bakery. ) Letizia's Fiore Logan Square

We hopped in a cab and had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.  Skip was our amazing cab driver that went to great heights to get us there right on time. (Call Skip for your West Side Cab needs at 773-677-2677, he's amazing!). He was starting to make us a little nervous when we told him what we were doing.

We proceeded to run into the restaurant, as it was still raining cats and dogs out there. Cristina greeted us with the biggest smile at the door. She is the cutest woman ever and was so excited to have us there. The place was deserted and there was just the three of us, Cristina and two other girls that were there to do the same thing. Cristina asked us if we'd like to wait before we head downstairs, as our men we're not there yet. The ladies and I thought for a second and said we'd rather just head downstairs and order a drink. Her look of shock said it all and she took us down the stairs. We were almost down the stairs when we spotted a group of three guys all the way at the one side of the room. They looked so nervous and we insisted in telling them that Sorry we weren't they're dates. They're dates were still upstairs waiting for their third to join before heading downstairs in the pack.

We sat down to our table and the bartender came by to take our drink orders. He started to tell us about all of the funny Grouper's that he's witnessed and he assured us that we'd have a great time. We nervously waited for our guys to come down the stairs and at about 8:15 two out of the three appeared. Mike and Pat were the first to arrive and were hilarious. Mike, Pat and the fashionably-late Dan were our dates for the night. They grew up together and had heard about Grouper through Mike's co-worker. Mike and Pat had tried it out for the first time with the co-worker and forced Dan to sign up.

We could not have asked for a better group. We were in stitches for most of the night and enjoyed getting to know all three. Now, when you sign up you have to say Two Truths and a Lie and we proceeded to go around the table and see if we could all guess. Mine were, I'm a huge Jets Fan, I was a Gerber Baby and I'm training to climb the Willis Tower. Obviously I was not a Gerber baby, but they were shocked with the Jets fan comment, but then again who isn't!

One of the best parts of the night was finding out that none of us even live close to the place that they sent us to. It was a great place with a wood-burning oven with delicious flat bread and an extensive collection of old cell phones. We proceeded to take pictures with the Zack Morris phones throughout the night.

After learning a little bit more about the guys, Dan (who was my grouper setup) actually worked at Ogilvy with me for a short time. He's in broadcasting and worked in the Studio here. Small World.


All and all we had a great time and ended up finishing up our drinks and headed to Longman and Eagle. The guys were so much fun to get to know and I highly recommend trying Grouper our for all of you single ladies and gentlemen. It's a great way to meet new people no matter what you're looking for. If you've tried or have any questions about joining please reach out, I'd be happy to share more about our experience. I'd like to thank my amazing wing-women that joined me last night, you both are the best! Thanks for joining me on this crazy adventure!

Here's the website if you want to join: Grouper


                        I'm off to power through my crazy work day to make it to the weekend!