Speed Dating in Wicker Park
Wicker Park has been Chicago's meeting-people neighborhood for decades — the six corners at Milwaukee, Damen and North are lined with the bars, music rooms and late restaurants where half the city's couples first crossed paths. Chicago First Dates gives that a little structure: a speed dating night at a neighborhood venue, ten to fifteen real conversations, and matches by the next morning.
The Wicker Park crowd is creative and easygoing: designers, musicians, people in tech and advertising who work in Fulton Market and live a Blue Line stop away, and Bucktown and Logan Square neighbors who walk over. Every event is organized by age range, so the room fits.
The venues
We host in the kind of places you'd pick yourself — a cocktail bar off Damen, a brewery taproom near the 606, a restaurant with a private back room on Division. What we look for is a reserved section, decent lighting and a volume that leaves room for conversation. The Damen and Division Blue Line stops are steps away.
Upcoming speed dating events in ChicagoHow it works
Check in, get a drink, and take a seat. You'll rotate through five-minute mini-dates with everyone in your age group, with a break in the middle to mingle. Afterward you log in, choose who you'd like to see again, and we send contact details for every mutual match. No pressure at the table, and the same format we run everywhere in Chicago.
Nearby
Bucktown, Logan Square, Ukrainian Village and West Town each have their own page, and speed dating on Chicago's North Side lists them all. The locations page covers every neighborhood and suburb we serve.