When Stephanie Ross moved from the city to Mineola, she entered a whole new world \u2013 and it wasn\u2019t just laid-back replacing hair-on-fire.<\/p>\n
What really floored the thirtysomething events planner was her social life. It was nowhere.
\nIn the city, she\u2019d dated within a wide circle of friends, but she hadn\u2019t established such a circle on the Island. She was uncomfortable in bars and heard \u201chorror stories about dating online.\u201d<\/p>\n
A friend told her about Great Date Now, a matchmaking outfit that recently established offices in Hauppauge and Garden City. Great Date Now takes the art of hooking up like-minded people seriously, Ross said, noting a professional matchmaker interviewed her and provided several options before setting up her first date.
\nShe\u2019s been out about six times now, and though she hasn\u2019t met the man of her dreams yet, \u201cI\u2019ve had some lovely evenings, made friends and I\u2019m learning the area.\u201d<\/p>\n
Great Date Now, which has seven other offices in the tri-state area, was founded by Gary Ferone, a former Wall Street broker and corporate headhunter who came up with the matchmaking notion after realizing that looking for his own dream mate had become a job in itself. The two Long Island locations, launched less than a year ago at a cost of about $100,000 per office, serve 1,200 clients so far, mostly professional people ages 30 to 55.
\nProfiles posted at online dating sites are rarely true, Ferone said, and online dating can be dangerous \u2013 his second wife encountered a man with stalker tendencies, Ferone noted, calling 15 times before the date and as many times after.<\/p>\n
With Great Date Now, membership starts at $2,500 (and goes up, depending on the package) and clients are interviewed in person for as long as 90 minutes on likes, dislikes, past experiences and ultimate goals. There are background checks, both criminal and financial, and verifications of both age and past employment.
\nOther services provided, for extra fees, include time with a dating coach, an image consultant and a personal trainer.<\/p>\n
The gathered information is dumped into a database, and that\u2019s when professional matchmaker Dawn Tefel does her thing. Tefel said listening, paying attention and \u201chaving a huge joy in making a match\u201d are the qualities needed for her profession.<\/p>\n
Professional matchmaking goes back hundreds (if not thousands) of years and remains popular in India and Japan, according to Lisa Clampitt, co-founder of the Matchmaking Institute, which trains and certifies matchmakers like Tefel. In the past, matchmakers were family or church members, Clampitt said, but in this age of people getting married later and divorcing more often, new styles of getting cuddly have emerged.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s been a huge surge in online dating, with about half of the single people in America going online at least once for a date,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But misinformation is rampant in the online dating world \u2013 about 10 percent of men hunting dates online are married, according to Clampitt. Personal, professional matchmaking, therefore, has become a $250 million industry in this country.<\/p>\n
Great Date Now\u2019s considerable fees have been worth every penny, according to elementary school teacher Nora Brown. The Garden City resident had one date with a man \u201cwho was nice\u201d but nothing more, she said. Then she went out with Jason, a financial planner who is \u201cathletic and has a great sense of humor.\u201d
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve definitely clicked,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n