lunchdate finder

October 8, 2007 2:02 PM

Ever wanted to have lunch with a few total strangers? Check out Noonhat. There's some background on the blog. More from an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders (13 comments total)

This is the freaking internet. What's with the geographical limits on where this thing works? We have the technology damn it.
posted by public at 2:29 PM on October 8, 2007

That looks interesting. I've seen people try similar things using craigslist's "strictly platonic" section and I've been curious to try it myself. I'll have to take Noonhat for a spin some time.
posted by lekvar at 2:29 PM on October 8, 2007

Public, I was about to point out that there weren't geographical limits, but once I saw where you are located I realized that would have betrayed my USA-centric view of the world.

I saw this a day or two ago and signed up for lunch next Monday in the Norfolk, VA area. I'm not holding out a lot of hope, but we'll see what happens.
posted by mragreeable at 2:39 PM on October 8, 2007

By the way, if you're wondering what this "Seattle freeze" business they're talking about in the P-I article is all about, you can read this article.
posted by mhum at 2:40 PM on October 8, 2007

Me, I'm wondering if those of us outside Seattle will get anything out of it, given the small scale it sounds like they're working on so far. (Signed up for tomorrow in Austin — here's another vote for "we'll see.")
posted by nebulawindphone at 2:44 PM on October 8, 2007

My guess is this generates a lot of "no shows"
posted by stbalbach at 3:37 PM on October 8, 2007

Ever wanted to have lunch with a few total strangers?

Erm, no!
posted by ericb at 3:40 PM on October 8, 2007

The year 2000 called. It wants its failed dotcom back (the one I spent 2 years of my life on... sniff).
posted by zarex at 3:41 PM on October 8, 2007

Does anyone want to get lunch tomorrow? I work near 58th and 6th Avenue in Manhattan.
posted by hermitosis at 3:55 PM on October 8, 2007

[Inhales sharply through teeth.] Awkward.
posted by tepidmonkey at 4:07 PM on October 8, 2007

This sounds like fun but is probably best approached on a city-by-city basis rather than an open map. Having lunch with people more than 10min walk from work is infeasible, for working people. For dinner, or for non-workers, the options are wider.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 6:07 PM on October 8, 2007

I saw the Noonhat "founder" talk about his site during Ignite!Seattle event. It was entertaining. You can watch that talk too on youtube. It's all of 5 and a half minutes long, and will give you an idea of what the idea is all about. It's really quite light-hearted.
posted by blindcarboncopy at 8:31 PM on October 8, 2007

Is there any cool Internet fad that's not in Seattle or Manhattan?
posted by rolypolyman at 9:02 PM on October 8, 2007