Whitney Wolfe Herd’s feminist social platform Bumble is set to open a permanent offline space in SoHo, Manhattan.
The café and bar, named “Bumble Brew”, will launch in autumn 2019. During the day the venue will act as a coffee shop, before hosting patrons for wine and small plates in the evenings.
Caroline Ellis Roche, Bumble’s Chief of Staff, said: “Our users want experiences; we know that from our data.” Speaking to Bloomberg, she noted that users would often proceed to local spots after pop-up ‘Hive’ events to continue networking.
Delicious Hospitality will collaborate with Bumble Brew to provide food. Menu items are set to include croissants, farro salad and prosciutto, but “No spaghetti – nothing that would be awkward on a first date”. Prices will be in the $12-15 range.
Bumble filed for the ‘Bumble Brew’ trademark in April, putting in a broad application that would have covered the spinoff brand in many areas:
- Computer software for the booking of bars, restaurants and accommodation
- Computer software for the ordering of food and drink
- Whips, harnesses and saddlery
- Meat, fish, poultry and game
- Coffee, tea, cocoa and artificial coffee
- Alcoholic beverages (except beers); wine; cider
- Restaurant, bar and catering services
- Internet based dating services
- Beer
Ellis Roche also revealed that Bumble will bring Brew to Austin, and potentially to other locations in the future, saying: “Absolutely, this is a concept we want to roll out. We have big plans for Austin as well, but want to wait until we debut our new HQ/campus in 2020.”
New York was singled out as a good first location as Bumble has a strong presence in the megacity. 40% of the app’s NYC users are based in Manhattan.
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