In October 2022, Jake Edward Fohn was walking through the Clement Street Farmer’s Market in San Francisco when he heard someone yell at him that he looked single.
Intrigued, he went over to a stand named Loose Grapes, an analog dating experience created by the artist and event producer Valerie Luu in October 2022.
Single people would have their photo taken and fill out a questionnaire that asked things like their most memorable meals or what dishes they might bring to a potluck. Ms. Luu would tape the photos and questionnaires up, along with contact information, so that interested farmer’s market goers could get in touch with them. Mr. Fohn, open to meeting someone, agreed to have his picture taken and filled out the questionnaire, making him one of the first to do so.
In February 2023, Grace Wing-Sum Stearns was walking through the farmer’s market when she ran into a friend at the Loose Grapes stand.
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT“I wasn’t necessarily looking to be dating at the time,” Ms. Stearns, 32, said. But her friend convinced her to sign up, so Ms. Stearns had her photo taken and quickly filled out the questionnaire. “I signed up, but kind of like freaked out mid sign-up, like what am I doing?”
The Loose Grapes stand had become so popular that Ms. Luu had to put pictures up in waves, rather than all at once. It wasn’t until May 2023 that Mr. Fohn, who had taken to checking the stand and became friends with Ms. Luu, spotted Ms. Stearns’s photo.
Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.1xbet