Kevin Barry Moedt, 29, isn’t asking for the moon. He just wants a nice guy to build a life — and, on a quiet night in, Lego sets — with.
Although he’s used dating apps, he says they can be “depressing,” between receiving unsolicited nudes and getting blocked out of nowhere.
“I am a hopeless romantic,” he said in a phone interview. “Actually, I’ve started saying hopeful romantic. It’s a little more optimistic. I’ve been a hopeful romantic my whole life.”
But New York City — where it can feel like everyone always has an eye out for something newer, shinier and more convenient — isn’t always kind to romantics.
It doesn’t help that the most popular meetup app for gay men, Grindr, can tell you how close the next guy is — down to the foot.
“As the crow flies, I’m 13, 14 miles from Brooklyn,” said Moedt, who owns a home in Highlands, New Jersey. “I’m close, but they have 20 men who are 300 feet away.”
“I would talk to someone who wouldn’t travel from Hell’s Kitchen to SoHo because they called that long distance,” he said.
These unique challenges led Moedt to ManMate, a New York City-based matchmaking service for gay men, by gay men.
While high-end matchmaking services have been operating in the city for decades, ManMate’s insider expertise makes it especially appealing to clients who feel misunderstood by gay and straight communities alike. And since the pandemic, people are especially hungry for in-person connection, according to Nick Flatto, ManMate’s owner since 2020.
Flatto, who goes by the name “Nick Bradford” professionally, began working with the company in 2015. “There was always a question of, ‘will we be as needed if dating is this immediate, if it’s this free?’” he said in an interview. “What I’m finding is, we’re needed more than ever.”
ManMate started before Bradford, 35, was born. In 1985, Grant Wheaton, an actor working the daytime soap opera circuit, teamed up with friends to hand out…
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