Boston-Based Meetup App Adds 12 New Venues & More Free Booze
The Hawthorne. / Photo provided
Nothing breaks the ice during an awkward first date better than a good wingperson, but you don’t always have that moral support when you’re going to meet your Tinder match. Enter Who’s That, a social app meant to connect groups of friends at bars around Boston, launched by college friends in July 2014.
Today, the company announces a rebrand as Cheers, and a new partnership with Absolut Elyx, which allows Cheers to pick up the first round of select drinks for users across its portfolio. Cheers also added a dozen new partner venues today, including the Hawthorne, Tavern Road, Citizen Public House, and Tiger Mama, upping its reach to more than 30 Boston-area bars and restaurants.
“If ‘Who’s That?’ is what you say when you first see someone of interest, ‘Cheers’ is what happens when you bring those people together,” says app cofounder and CEO Sam Davidson in a statement.
Along with cofounder Brian Sachetta, Davidson created the meetup app to “optimize [its users’] existing social lives.”
“While dating apps force you on uncomfortable, 1-on-1 dates with total strangers, Cheers shows you other groups of friends going out in your city and lets you get drinks with a new group when interest is mutual,” he says.
The app started on nine college campuses, and has grown 400 percent since October 2015, when it partnered with Fireball Whiskey and started buying the first round of cinnamon-tinged drinks, Davidson says.
Today’s announcement allows users to order a round of Absolut Elyx drinks on the app at 13 of its 31 partner venues, including Ward 8’s Hang Ten, a giant copper pineapple filled with the vodka, passionfruit, and honey meant for sharing. The Fireball partnership continues, too.
The Cheers app is part of the social fabric of these venues:
- Study at Ames (formerly called Ames St Deli) – 73 Ames St, Cambridge
- Citizen Public House – 1310 Boylston St, Boston
- Felipe’s – 21 Brattle St, Cambridge
- Franklin Cafe – 278 Shawmut Ave, Boston
- The Hawthorne – 500 A Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
- Highball Lounge – 90 Tremont St, Boston
- Liquid Art House – 100 Arlington St, Boston
- Market – 21 Broad St, Boston
- Tavern Road – 343 Congress St, Boston
- Tia’s Waterfront – 200 Atlantic Ave, Boston
- Tiger Mama – 1363 Boylston St, Boston
- Ward 8 – 90 N Washington St. Boston
- The Brahmin – 33 Stanhope St, Boston
- Crossroads Irish Pub – 495 Beacon St, Boston
- Daedalus – 45 Mt. Auburn St, Cambridge
- East End Grill – 118 Broadway St, Somerville
- Good Life – 28 Kingston St, Boston
- King St Tavern – 1 Court St, Boston
- The Living Room – 101 Atlantic Ave, Boston
- Lucky’s Lounge – 355 Congress St, Boston
- The Merchant – 60 Franklin St, Boston
- Red Lantern – 39 Stanhope St, Allston
- Scholars – 25 School St, Boston
- Shojo – 9 Tyler St, Boston
- The Sinclair – 52 Church St, Cambridge
- Sissy K’s – 6 Commercial St, Boston
- State Park – 1 Kendall Square, Cambridge
- Stats Bar & Grill – 77 Dorchester St, Boston
- Sterling’s – 60 State St, Boston
- Telegraph Hill – 289 Dorchester Ave, Boston
- The Wild Rover – 63 Chatham St, Boston
