March 14, 2000 - Business in the Western Suburbs.

Couple meet an eligible demand

Husband and wife are matchmakers
in business to set up dinner parties
for professional singles in the suburbs.

---

By Lynn Van Matre Tribune Staff Writer

---

West suburban sales rep David Bugniazet and marketing director Bonnie Lewis met at a singles function in Bloomingdale and married a year later. But it was just a matter of luck that the couple connected, Bugniazet said.

Members of the Delightful Dining Club get to know each other at Quigley's Irish Pub. "Most of our members find blind dates, dating services and personal ads unappealing," says co-owner Bonnie Lewis.

"There were no introductions at the event: it was very cold and impersonal," he recalled. "We all just paid our money and shuffled into a large room and had to make do on our own.

"Fortunately, I spoke briefly to Bonnie and liked her directness so I asked if I could call her." Bugniazet added. "We spent a lot of time during our courtship talking about how hard it was to meet [eligible singles] who shared our values."

After swapping stories about singles' struggles to find romance in family-oriented suburbia, Bugniazet, 52, and Lewis, 43, decided to plunge into the meeting game again—this time as entrepreneurs.

Shortly before their 1998 wedding, the couple launched Delightful Dining, a Lombard-based dinner club for professional singles. The club, a sideline business for the couple, has 300 members who pay $98 a year (plus dinner costs) to attend events held twice monthly at west suburban restaurants, where they will be seated with pre-screened singles of similar ages and interests.

"Some people come in hopes of starting a relationship quickly, and some people are happy to just meet a handful of people that could turn out to be great golf players or bridge partners." Bugniazet said. "We don't get the kind of insincere people who are in a rush to hit on somebody before 11p.m."

According to the U.S. Census figures, the number of singles in DuPage County rose 27 percent between 1980 and 1990 while the married population rose 17 percent: Kane County recorded a 20 percent increase in singles and an 11 percent increase in the married population during the same period.

As the area's singles population had grown, so has the number of church groups, dance clubs and match making businesses that cater to the romantically unattached. In recent years, at least one national dating service, It's Just Lunch, also has opened an office in DuPage County, but Bugniazet and Lewis said they don't see themselves competing for the same clients.

"Most of our members find blind dates, dating services and personal ads unappealing." Lewis said.

Dining club co-owner David Bugniazet, 52, talks with guests at a recent dinner. The club has 300 members who pay $98 a year plus meal costs to meet singles at the twice monthly events.

Bugniazet said most Delightful Dining members are divorced, widowed or never married professionals in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. Prospective clients can expect to be asked about their jobs, values, hobbies and marital status (to avoid potential problems, the couple turn down applicants who are informally separated from a spouse.)

"I thought joining would be a matter of calling the club and finding out where to send a check, but they talked to me for at least a half-hour." said Dean, a 37-year-old engineering manager from Naperville who, for reasons of privacy, asked to be identified only by his first name. Dean met his fiancee, Karen, a 37-year-old school band director, at a Delightful Dining event: the couple are planning a June wedding.

"It's tough to meet people anywhere, not just in the suburbs." said Dean, who learned about the club through a newspaper ad. "But I figured the worst thing that could happen was that I would have a nice meal and some nice conversation."

Carla Winkel of Lombard and John Ripley of Prospect Heights, both in their 50s, also met at a Delightful Dining function and plan to marry in June. Winkel, a special-education teacher, said she preferred singles group dinners to dating services because there was less pressure.

"At first I was apprehensive about going to an event alone." she said. "Then I thought, what do I have to lose? I'll have a good dinner."

A typical Delightful Dining event draws between 50 and 60 diners who are seated at tables for 6 or 8, Bugniazet said. Though a table for 6 sometimes is equally divided between men and women, Bugniazet acknowledged that it is typically 2 men and 4 women per table.

"That is a much higher men-to-women ratio than you will find at other singles events." Bugniazet said. "Men and women both tell us that a lot of other singles club functions there are 10 or 12 women for every man, which isn't a comfortable ratio for anybody."

To beef up the club's male membership, Bugniazet and Lewis advertise in golfing magazines and the business and sports sections of newspapers. "You have to market a little more aggressively toward men," Bugniazet said. "Women who find our group appealing tend to tell their friends about us. Guys who find the group appealing don't do that. They would rather just keep it their little secret."

(Article re-printed from the Chicage Tribune, March 14, 2000 - Photos for the Tribune by Warren Skalski)


back to main news