I get off the tube at Chalk Farm in north London, the chilly evening air inviting me to wrap my scarf more tightly around my neck. With trepidation, I walk towards it, gingerly heading over the busy zebra crossing. The dinner has not been organised by the producers of Come Dine With Me for a new spin-off, but Timeleft; a relatively new app which aims to help forge genuine connections between strangers, sans screens and swiping.
Instead, it was during lockdown , where he saw an increasing number of people become isolated and reliant on socialising through screens alone, that Barbier decided to radically overhaul his app. He stripped Timeleft back to its bare bones, and offered a counterpoint to other dating apps: no pictures, no swiping and no DM slides. Instead, the app encourages users to take a basic personality quiz. I am apprehensive when I take my seat at Table 5 at the vegan Italian restaurant, somewhat doubtful that anything genuinely meaningful is going to come from the evening.
I am no stranger at rocking up to venues not having a clue who I am meeting with. The event platform also saw three times as many speed dating events listed in London compared to previous years. It creates something quite superficial. And dinner forces you to stay for two or three hours and to talk. You can really find out about another person. At my dinner, the others had cracked open a bottle of wine before I had arrived.
It was a mixed group — four women including me and two men, the eldest around mid-thirties Timeleft strives to ensure there's an age gap of no more than seven years between the youngest and oldest diner. As desperate as I was for a glass to ease my nerves, I dutifully stuck to my virgin mojitos I promised to go sober for a month , knocking back minty water whilst the chatter started to flow; a little uneasily, at first.
He asked us on what had brought us all here: one woman was a DJ who had recently moved back from Ibiza, another had a huge falling out with her friends and wanted to meet new people. The table turned to me and I mumbled something about breaking up with my ex-boyfriend at a time where people my age were getting married and having kids. The other women at the table nodded thoughtfully.
