More about Cleveland Dating Services: Lunch Date
Sunday April 20, 2008
Anne Price continues her exploration of Cleveland dating services. This week she tried "Lunch Date." Here is what she has to say: Singles from Cleveland and surrounding areas that are serious about not flying solo should give Lunch Date a try. Privately-owned and operated since 1995, Lunch Date is a professional dating service. All about personalized matching, owner and creator Mike Green hand-selects individuals based on his own interaction with them and then works to find their perfect counterpart.
"I know what the client is looking for. Our matching is based on a client's criteria and my intuition or gut-feeling about who is right for them," Green explained. "We match clients based on a number of things: socioeconomics, personality, geography, age, race, religion, sophistication, level of adventure -- just everything. I'm a memory guy and don't forget the people I meet."
Located downtown, Lunch Date is a boutique service that's built a name for itself because of this personalization. In 13 years, the dating service has created over 200 marriages. Currently they have about 600 clients in their entire database. "We have people from all over Northeast Ohio, ages 24-76," Green explained.
Personalized service
"People aren't obligated to our selections, but we are very good at what we do. While the (dating services) field has gotten more crowded and the pie has been divided, I feel ours is the Cadillac or Mercedes of the business. Many other services don't know the people they're connecting and have a high employee turnover. Not us. I personally know each of the people I match," said Green.
The service does perform background checks on potential clients. Everything from age, job, education and lack of criminal history is verified. Meeting with Mike the first time, it's easy to see he's very passionate about what he does and he enjoys building a relationship with his clients. "I’m not a hired hand. This is my livelihood. If I don’t do a good job producing effective matches, that’s how I get my money," he explained.
The process requires meeting with Mike at a mutually agreeable location and spending some time explaining what your needs are, as well as describing yourself. Now, while this may sound about as fun as being interrogated or performing at a job interview, the reality is anything but painful. He even managed to make me blush, guessing my age at 32 and guilelessly remarking that he finds my appearance much younger than the reality.
Light atmosphere
Over coffee or in his office, Green tries to keep the atmosphere light and the questions fairly simple. Most people already have an idea of the type of person they're looking for, and Green just fosters conversation that will bring those choices to light.
Dating someone from "Lunch Date" is an equally breezy process. Mike and his staff orchestrate the match, contacting both people for their opinions and choices. From there, a few geographically convenient locations are chosen, schedules are consulted and a date is set.
"We eliminate the actual time component and make it easy. We're kind of like a personal trainer or realtor. We do the work. We’re doing the selling for them. The hardest part of dating is selling yourself to people; we’re doing that for the client. Using our service means they don’t have to approach people, or write an essay about themselves like they would in Internet dating. We’re doing it for them. The matches happen for them. If they meet someone they like, their profiles with us can go on hold indefinitely. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll treat that accordingly," said Green.
People using the service are "usually more sincere," than those found on the Internet or through other dating channels. They've signed on for the process and paid money to utilize the talents of Green and his staff. They've spent an hour or two talking with Mike, signing a contract, and paying a modest fee.
Gauging chemistry
Green states, "I tell every client we match accordingly. Chemistry is hard to gauge, but usually we have a fair gauge from getting to know each of the individuals."
I also contacted "It's Just Lunch," a dating service competitor in the Cleveland area, but they were unavailable for contact.
As for me, I have a mid-week meeting scheduled with Ed from Avon through Lunch Date. No last names are given out during the matching process. He describes himself as having good values, being intelligent, funny and looking for a committed relationship. Stay tuned -we'll see if Lunch Date got it right in an upcoming article. All this investigative research for About.com Cleveland is taking a bit of time. It's hard work, but someone has to do it!
(photo © istockphoto; Anne prefers to remain anonymous)
Comments
This service sounds very interesting, but I am a bit skeptical. I’m really interested to know what will happen on your date with “Ed”
please keep us posted.
Don’t waste your money. Lunch date is a joke! There isn’t a staff, just his brother answering phones. Mike is very abusive and he’ll take your money and bash you behind your back. He refers to his clients as fat pigs and loosers. He has guys going on dates for free because he doesn’t have enough clients. He thinks anyone using his service is desperate. DON’T PUT YOURSELF THROUGH THE ABUSE! Mike isn’t a nice person, he is evil! I regret the day I ever got involved with Mike Green and LUNCH DATE.
wow. I was going to sign up for the service, but after reading the comments, I’m confused. Anybody else got any any intel on this service and its owner! help!
Darlene
Like the first commenter, I’m a little skeptical also. The only thing I know about the service is that a friend tried it. She was disappointed in the caliber of men that she was introduced to.
Hi…interesting comments. I really liked Mike, but then again, I did not pay for the service. The one coffee date I had was fine - he was self-employed, friendly, very polite, age appropriate, a seemingly very nice person. We didn’t really connect, and haven’t seen each other since.
As far as the money issue, Mike sent me an email recently asking for feedback and mentioned setting up another date. I’m not really in the whole dating mood lately, so I passed.
As for “It’s Just Lunch” they couldn’t be bothered to answer either email or phone calls. Ostensibly, they’re running a business that lives on customer service, and they provided absolutely ZERO to me. I even tried explaining that it was for an article so there would be some publicity and…still nothing.
I liked Mike. He did have a detailed approach and was thorough and professional. But that was just my experience.
Interesting input. I’ve asked Mike Green to respond to your comments. Please check back.
Anne,
I don’t think you’re qualified to respond. You didn’t pay $800 like everyone else to be on Lunch Date. If you really wanted to do a fair, objective reporting job, you shouldn’t have let Mike Green know you were a “journalist”. Then he would have treated you like Mary, Laura, and so many others who seem to have sad experiences. Basically, Anne, you didn’t do an objective job at all. As an example, restaurant critics don’t announce they are writing reviews when they go to dining establishments. I’m wondering where you got your journalism training? Or were you just looking for a free date?
Anne, maybe It’s Just Lunch didn’t want to give you a free date?
Also, I have a problem with this seciton from your “review”:
“He even managed to make me blush,
guessing my age at 32 and guilelessly remarking that he finds my appearance much younger than the reality.”
that’s a joke, right? he was “guileless”? He knew you were doing a review. A real reporter wouldn’t have fallen for that schmooze
I would be interested in hearing back from Mike Green. He is never available when he receives negative press. I was one of Mike’s go to guys. I didn’t pay for the service..becasue Mike promised me he would fix me up with a “Hot Babe” if I took one of his pigs out.
I am embarrased to say I went out with women as a “favor” knowing I had no interest in them. The sad thing is I was also used because Mike never fixed me up with the “Hot Babe.”
what’s up with these e-mails? I’m interested in hearing what Mr. Green has to say about this. Have we heard from him yet?
Is there a LunchDate support group? We could meet at Starbucks in Cleveland Heights? Let me know if anyone’s interested.
Elaine, I am interested!
Hi guys-
my name’s rebecca meiser and i’m a writer for scene magazine. i had written an article involving mike green a while back and seeing this comments i’m looking to possibly write a follow-up. i’d love to talk with you guys. please either e-mail me at rebecca.meiser@clevescene.com or give me a call at 216-802-7233.
thanks!
I haven’t had any experience with Lunch Date, so I can’t comment on the service or Mike. But I was curious, so I checked out the Lunch Date web site. The “testimonials” section is funny. Obviously, those are stock headshots and canned quotes. Those people cannot be real clients!
OMG! Boy Oh Boy, Mike has definately NOT changed after 10 years! My friend and I utilized his service, he was verbally abusive and an angry man towards me and my friend. I even got set up with a stalker! By the way, he still owes me 3 dates not to mention my friend 2 dates. That was in 1997. I wish I had the info on him back then and I would have never had used him. Would definately LOVE to see him exposed for who he really is.
Thank you to everyone for commenting. This is obviously a topic that people have strong feelings about.
I would, however, like to point out to people reading this thread that the comments here are individual readers opinions. Anne, the About.com writer, had a positive experience with Lunch Date and I (the site editor) have no experience with the company.
I have asked Mike Green to respond to the comments above.
Lunchdate Update:
It has come to my attention that a few people have left multiple comments on this thread using the same IP address and different user names. I have deleted all ficticious comments.
Please note that this is an open forum, but fictious posts will not be tolerated.
I have been a friend of Mike Green’s for more than 20 years. The man is one of the most forthright and hardworking people I know. He created Lunch Date and poured his energy into it beyond what most people are willing to do. I trust Mike’s judgement, I trust Mike’s word and he has been nothing but professional to my knowledge. I know there are a lot of disillusioned people out there when it comes to the dating world. Its not easy trying to find the “perfect” mate. I can’t comment on the reasons why some of you have written such harsh words about Mike and the way he conducts his business. But, I know a helluva lot of folks who have gone on to get married and who were more than satisfied with the service Lunch Date provided. Mike, keep up the good work! Thomas M.
Sandra,
I can understand that you want to protect the integrity of the site by limiting the fictitious e-mails. I don’t know Mike Green and I’ve never used his service, but I’ve heard some questionable things about him personally and also about Lunch Date. Obviously, there are some angry ex-clients of his. They deserve to be heard and Mike or his satisfied clients can respond. That’s a forum. What I really object to is the writing of puff pieces by so-called reporters like Anne. She didn’t pay for the service and Mike knew she was writing a review! That couldn’t possibly be an objective scenario. She went on one dead-end date. No biggie because she didn’t pay. What if she had payed hundreds of dollars to go on dead-end dates? I’m sure she would have had a totally different reaction (besides her breezy “c’est la vie” response).
You need to decide if about.com is going to dispense objective, useful, factual information to readers or just be a repository of puffy advertorials that have about as much integrity as a public relations brochure. If it’s the latter, then it’s a joke for you to talk about readers writing fictitious letters. Instead of editing letters from readers, you should spend your time editing the writing of your freelancers.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Brian.
Any non-profane comment will be allowed to stand on this site. What I object to is a few individuals posting multiple comments as if they were different people. Of those, I allowed one comment from each IP address to remain. Leaving the fictious emails would be misleading to readers.
Thank you, also to Thomas for posting a positive comment.
Does anyone else have a good Lunch Date experience to share?
P.S. to precedng letter.
Why is Anne bashing It’s Just Lunch for not returning her calls? Maybe they were understaffed at that time or just not interested in having her write about them? That’s their decision. Is Anne interested in reviewing the quality of their dating service or is she reviewing their performance at returning her phone calls? I think it’s unprofessional for her to bash them without talking to them. Can you imagine a newspaper reporter bashing a source in his or her article because they didn’t return a phone call???? I’d be pretty ticked off if I was the operators of It’s Just Lunch.
Let’s get some professionalism going here. If your site isn’t done well, then what’s the point of doing it?
In consultation with my editor, I’ve decided to close down this thread to comments. Although About.com welcomes an open sharing of opinions, I’m concerned that this thread slams a business without giving a fair respresentation of both sides of the issue.