Hi, I’m Jesse (she/her). I’m the human behind New Haven IRL.

I’ve lived in New Haven for more than twenty years of my adult life, and I genuinely love this city. The food, the art, the weirdness, the grit - all of it. But over time, I started to notice something: even in a place this lively, it’s surprisingly easy to feel alone.

Somewhere between work, adulthood, and all of us hiding behind headphones, connection got… harder. People rush from one thing to the next, eyes down on their phones, heads buried in laptops. There’s no shortage of great stuff to do - new restaurants, cool events, pop-ups, museums - but without people to share them with, even the best nights can feel a little flat.

And if that’s true for me - an extrovert who will happily talk to anyone about anything - I knew it had to be true for everyone else, too.

So I started paying attention. I did a nerdy amount of research. What actually makes people click? What kinds of spaces and invitations help strangers drop their guard? How do we move beyond being acquaintances, or people who smile at each other every week at the same coffee shop, and actually connect?

That’s where New Haven IRL came from - its my experiment in designing real-world connection.

I’ve spent more than 25 years in marketing and event planning, and I’ve poured every bit of that experience (and a little obsession) into making this project work. The Social Salon isn’t just another event. It’s the result of months of testing, reading, reworking, and quietly studying what makes people open up and feel seen.

This is my passion project - and it’s built for people like us: curious, busy, a little lonely sometimes, and ready to meet the kind of people who make living here feel richer.

Come to a Social Salon and see what happens when the city starts to feel small again - in the best possible way.