Speed dating at The Candy Bar already a success

LACONIA — It’s officially springtime, and love is in the air downtown.

In a unique offering, Kristin Bastille, owner of Defiant Records & Craft Beer and The Candy Bar, both located along Main Street near the Colonial Theatre, is working with her team to organize a speed-dating event next week.

It’ll be hosted at The Candy Bar on the evening of Tuesday, March 31. A ticketed event, Bastille said Wednesday she was surprised by the demand the event received.

A regular at Defiant initially suggested the idea. It struck a chord with the Bastilles — Kristin, Kayla and Jon, and they set out to make it happen.

“It was a customer at Defiant that kind of had the idea,” Kristin said. “I think they were single and thought the environment at The Candy Bar was a good place to have this sort of thing.”

When organizing the event at first, they decided to limit ticket sales to people in their 30s and 40s. But the demand for tickets exceeded their expectations, and people into their 50s will likely be welcomed to the next iteration of the event.

“There’s a market for it.”

The concept is simple: an intimate, speakeasy-style experience designed to cultivate and support genuine conversations in a low-pressure, candle-lit environment. It’s a guided evening — Jon, Kristin's brother, who also hosts open mic comedy, and trivia once in a while, at Defiant — is doing the guiding. There will be ice-breaker questions, then short periods where pairs will have time to talk to see if they’ve got the spark, before rotating on to the next.

“Hopefully, maybe, there’s a little connection,” she said.

When they first announced the event, the ratio was off. It was four or five women to one man who initially obtained tickets. Later on, there were more men than women, but now, the numbers match. Bastille said, to her, that more women signing up than men at first is an example of women in the city’s dating scene being a bit more bold than men tend to be.

“I was really surprised,” Bastille said when asked what she thought of the demand they experienced. “It’s so unique to the area.”  

That the event garnered lots of interest speaks to the changing dynamics of downtown, which Bastille said has “taken a turn.” She’s been a business owner downtown through economic ups and downs, and plays witness to the economic development of the district.  

“We have some really great people around here,” she said. “Down at Defiant, at The Candy Bar, we see it all the time.”  

The idea brought to her by a customer struck a chord with Kristin and her friends and coworkers between the two businesses, because they know of at least one couple who met at Defiant and later got engaged. From their vantage point behind the bar, they witness mixed connections, and also single customers, who they think would make a good pair, too. 

“We have our regulars, and there’s definitely people that we’re always rooting for,” she said. 

A longtime bartender at Defiant also pitched the idea to a group of single men who are regulars one night, and all of them signed up for the event. Another longtime employee recruited singles at Fit Focus, a gym downtown. Altogether, they’ve got 10 men and 10 women ready to fall in love.

Though Kristin wasn’t sure how the idea would pan out — she described it as “kind of a shot in the dark” — she said it's clear people in the area are interested in the event, and so to her, it’s already a success.

“One match would be super cool,” she said.  

People may be frustrated with modern dating dynamics, particularly the presupposition that much of dating happens online and on apps, and this represents a viable, curated and thoughtful alternative.

“It takes a little more guts to do,” Kristin said. “These are bold people signing up, which I’m really happy about.”