Vegan Speed Dating Comes to Berkeley

A local businesswoman is launching a signature Berkeley event that promises to bring together the best of two very different worlds. On August 3 at 7:30 p.m.,  will offer a merry-go-round of micro-dates for meat-abhorring singles in what is probably the largest event of its kind to date in the Bay Area.

“I’m vegan. So I do a lot of vegan events,” said Karine Brighten, the event’s organizer. Brighten has booked the Space Lounge at , a Berkeley restaurant with an all-vegetarian menu. After some appetizers and mingling, participants will have a series of 3-minute conversations, each with a different partner. In three quarters of an hour, everyone can meet and talk to at least a dozen people.

Brighten and her husband are both vegan and eat no meat nor dairy, and Brighten feels that sharing dietary preferences is a big part of a relationship. “If you’re vegan or vegetarian, you definitely want to be dating someone who also is,” she said. Brighten doesn’t allow meat to enter her house and won’t go to zoos. She even avoids restaurants that serve meat. “If I were single I definitely could not date someone who wasn’t vegan, just because it’s such a big part of my life.”

Some of Brighten’s single friends had complained about the difficulty of meeting other vegan singles, so she decided to organize the speed-dating event. Brighten, who founded her own company, Karen Brighten Events, organized Berkeley Vegan Earth Day in April with a film screening, panel discussion, trade show and catered reception. Last year, her Vegan Fashion Show in San Francisco featured models, makeup, clothing and designers who are vegetarian or vegan.

The upcoming dating event, which Brighten hopes will be the first of many, is limited to 50 spots for heterosexual singles age 21 and older. “You can meet a new vegetarian friend or find your vegan soul mate,” advertises the event website, where tickets can be purchased for $30.

For more information or to buy tickets: http://vegspeeddating.com/