‘People are lonely, but not just that, they’re tired of not meeting people naturally in real life,’ Hanife H, 26, tells Metro.
The Gen Z coffee shop owner is a mission to stir up both Matcha and love.
Realising her customers (and half her generation) are sick of the apps, she’s set up a blind date service designed to take the slog out of dating.
A week ago, Hanife posted a video to her 24,000 followers unveiling her plan. ‘I’ve set up a Google form, if you fill it out I will be matching you with someone relevant, and you’ll go on a very casual cafe date,’ she said.
Over 1500 submission later, Hanife might be about to make this year’s Valentine’s Day extra special for a handful of people.
‘It first started off as a bit of a joke’
A lot of people might already be familiar with Hanife’s journey — having documented her experience of opening independent cafe frothee in North London with her dad on TikTok last year.
Easily one of the most ambitious people I’ve ever chatted to, it doesn’tsurprise me when Hanife explains that’s had the flu four times over the past few months. In between smiles and sniffles, she explains how this whole matchmaking idea came about.
‘I had posted an Instagram story asking what customers wanted to see for Valentine’s Day. And someone replied saying “find me a nice boyfriend”,’ she says.
‘At the cafe we have a really great, lovely community, and I have previously had people ask me to set them up with a customer. So, I had a bit of a brain wave and I just thought “let’s give the people what they want”.’
Customers could apply for the service by sending Hanife a few details about themselves alongside links to their socials. Those matched will receive a gift card towards the cost of their date at the coffee shop. But for now, the form has been closed.
‘Before I knew it, 300,000 people had seen the video and my DMs were full of requests to re-open the form so more people could apply!’ Hanife says.
‘There were even people in the comments talking to each other, finding out who was single and might be up for a first date.’
The coffee shop owner thinks the interest in the matchmaking is not only because of the fact people are sick to death of apps, she thinks it’s also to do with communities’ desire for third spaces.
‘As a society there’s been this general emphasis on staying home, especially post-COVID. A lot of people now work from home and in a way we’ve lost these community spaces where people can meet each other and where they could naturally find a partner.’
‘I’m refusing to use AI. I’m matching all the couples myself’
One of the most important things in this entire process for Hanife is that she doesn’t want it to feel at all akin to a dating app experience.
Because of this she’s starting this journey by just focusing on a small number of couples, 30 at most.
‘I want this to be a specifically curated experience. I want to be able to look at someone’s profile and think “okay, you’d potentially match up well with this other people”.
‘I’m going to be looking at people’s likes, what they enjoy in life, what they have to say about things. It should almost feel as though I’m their friend and I’m choosing someone for them to meet that I think they’d vibe with.’
So, what kind of data is Hanife working with?
‘We’ve had 450 men (28%), 1100 women (71%), and 7 other (0.4%) submit applications.
‘65.9% of all applicants, in total, were looking to date men. The majority of those applying were in their mid 20s, but applicants have ranged in ages 18-45. 68.9% wanted to know their date beforehand, with the rest happy to go in blind.
‘I have narrowed down matches based on certain details and then handpicked matches for each individual based on the detailed paragraphs they have submitted. I am looking to host around 30 dates to begin with.
‘Dates will begin this on Friday 13 February and will continue into next week.’
And while the form is closed for now, Hanife is definitely not opposed to matching more couples in the future. Could there be a frothee wedding on the horizon?