By Dannette Smith

Staff Writer

    Play Date, located in Oakland, is a fun and exciting atmosphere for adults to enjoy food, cocktails, listen to music, socialize and meet other people, all while playing childhood games.

Some featured games are “Connect Four,” “Musical Chairs,” “Sorry” and “Checkers.”

“The concept was developed to bring interesting, diverse groups of people together to interact on a social setting based on playing games,” said Ebony Miser, co-owner of the Oakland location.

Play Date is a franchised event, spread throughout the United States. It was originally developed and launched in 2005 by Timeless Entertainment Concepts, LLC, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Founders Ryan Hill and Imari Havard came up with the name because they thought if children have play dates, so can adults.

Oakland became the most recent franchise. Owners Ebony Mister, Kyion Williams and Larry Battiste purchased the Bay Area market and operate Play Date in about 35 neighboring cities.

Play Date allows adults to relax and enjoy being a kid again. With DJ SlowPoke keeping the atmosphere alive by playing the hottest music of today along with old school hits and local comedian JRed keeping the crowd entertained with his hilarious jokes, you’re almost sure to enjoy your experience there.

As the event continues, guest are invited to play interactive games such as “Twister,” “Red Light Green Light,” “Merry-Go-Round,” and crowd favorite, “Simon Says,” which is turned into a dance competition between two groups.

“Play Date is the solution to the lack of creative social atmosphere and entertainment in metropolitan cities and surrounding areas,” says Mister.

It gives you a fun and new alternative to the standard weekend club scene.

Although the event is open to those 21 years and up, it also focuses on the 25-60 year old crowd as well.

While Play Date is not intended as a place to “hook up,” singles on dates with one another, it is a great place to meet people and have the chance to interact with them.

The hopes of getting a Play Date on East Bay’s campus is more than likely because the owners are looking to expand the franchise to college, high school and even elementary school age groups.