Basquez, has built a business bringing people together, and not just Catholics. Fourteen men and women met to chat for five-to-seven minutes and possibly find someone they might want to follow up with later.
A former daily newspaper journalist and food critic, Basquez started with a traveling Catholic dinner group called the Last Supper Club. She keeps on the lookout for restaurants where she can bring people together.
Perhaps as an advance glimpse of married life with small children, Casa Bonita was in its full glory Sunday with raging waterfalls, stage shows and a stunt person in a gorilla suit. No flame jugglers were working this particular lunch, but some speed daters appeared to flinch at the fake gunshots punctuating their conversation. The over-the-top Mexican restaurant opened in a mall in and has been a Denver-area institution for decades on West Colfax Avenue. They had some speed-dating to do. Basquez assigned them to partners, then rang a bell to signal it was time to switch seats and make notes on a cheat sheet.
So far, Basquez says her company, Catholic Speed Dating, and affiliated blind dating match service Faith Match, have been credited with 30 marriages — and that doesn't count people who used her service and later found someone to marry.
A string of nuptials after her first event led her to think she was providing a service that was needed -- and divinely inspired.
