Apps to Meet People in LA That Aren't Dating Apps
Timeleft, 222, Bumble BFF, Meetup, Pie, Washed Up and Buffet, compared honestly: what each one actually does, what it costs, and who it's for.
Thanksgiving is the holiday that tells you whether you have people here yet. Christmas you can fly home for. The Fourth is a crowd. Thanksgiving is a Thursday, Los Angeles half-empties, and the ones left behind are, disproportionately, the ones who moved here in the last year or two.
That is not a sad fact. It is a useful one. Everybody who is still in town on November 26 and does not have a table to go to is in exactly your position, and most of them would say yes to a plan if someone proposed one. So here is a day’s worth of plans, each of them real, dated, and built so that you can turn up alone and leave with company.
Run It Off First
Turkey Trot LA – Downtown
📍 Location: Los Angeles City Hall, 200 N Spring St, Los Angeles
🗓️ When: Thursday, November 26 · Dog Jog 7:30am · 5K 8:00 and 8:15am · 10K 9:00am
💰 Price Range: About $50 for the 5K with fees; packet pickup at Grand Park the day before
🦃 Tags: Run, Walk, Dogs Welcome, Downtown
The start corral of a turkey trot is the most sociable place in the city at eight in the morning. People in costumes and old race shirts, nobody in a hurry, and a built-in opening line, which is “have you done this before?” Packet pickup, the awards and the Metro stop are all at Grand Park, across from City Hall.
Walk it if you want. The 5K has two waves, there is a one-mile Dog Jog before it, and nobody is checking your pace. Register on the race site; the 5K was $49.90 with fees at the time of writing.
LA Classic Turkey Trot – Griffith Park
📍 Location: Shane’s Inspiration, Griffith Park, Los Angeles
🗓️ When: Sunday, November 22 · 15K 7:45am · 5 Miler 8:15am · 5K 8:30am
💰 Price Range: From about $54 for the 5K until November 20, then more
🌳 Tags: Run, Park, The Weekend Before
The weekend-before version, for people whose actual Thursday is spoken for or who would rather run in the park than on asphalt. Three distances, all starting from the Shane’s Inspiration side of Griffith Park, and a crowd that skews toward people who do this every year and will tell you about it.
Give the Morning Away
If you are going to be on your own on the day, the most reliable way to spend it in a room full of warm people is to serve. Both of these are real, both are annual, and both fill up.
Gobble Gobble Give – Downtown and Santa Monica
📍 Location: Last year: Arts District Brewing Company, 830 Traction Ave, Downtown, and Airport Park, 3201 Airport Ave, Santa Monica
🗓️ When: Thanksgiving morning, 9am to noon
💰 Price Range: Free; bring food that’s ready to serve
🍽️ Tags: Volunteer, Morning, No Sign-Up
For more than twenty-five years, Gobble Gobble Give has gathered volunteers on Thanksgiving morning to deliver meals, clothing and toiletries to people living on the street. In Los Angeles the Downtown and Santa Monica sites take walk-ups with no sign-up: you bring something ready to serve, you help pack it, and you go out with a group. The Crenshaw site asks for an RSVP. The sites above are last year’s; the 2026 page is usually updated in mid-November, so check it the week before.
The Midnight Mission Thanksgiving Street Festival – Skid Row
📍 Location: The Midnight Mission, 601 S San Pedro St, Los Angeles
🗓️ When: Thanksgiving Day; volunteer shifts are posted on the Mission’s calendar
💰 Price Range: Free to volunteer
🤝 Tags: Volunteer, Big, Book Ahead
More than 2,500 Thanksgiving meals served on the street outside the Mission by hundreds of volunteers. It is the biggest single thing happening in the city that morning. Volunteering runs through the Mission’s portal; make an account, find the holiday shifts on the calendar, and book early, because they go. If the calendar is empty, call them at (213) 624-9258.
The Night Before
Friendsgiving at Rooftop Cinema Club – Downtown
📍 Location: 888 S Olive St, Los Angeles
🗓️ When: Wednesday, November 25 · 7:45pm, doors 45 minutes before
💰 Price Range: Sold out at the time of writing; the waitlist is open
📺 Tags: Outdoor Movie, 16+, Rooftop
Four Friends Thanksgiving episodes back to back on a Downtown rooftop, the Wednesday before. It sold out, which tells you something about how many people in this city want a Thanksgiving-eve plan that is not their couch. Join the waitlist; seats do come back.
Dinner, If You Don’t Have One
Here is the honest version. Restaurants that serve Thanksgiving dinner book out weeks ahead and their menus change every year, so we are not going to list them. The better move, if you are new, is not to chase a reservation for one. It is to make the Saturday the day instead.
A Friendsgiving on the Saturday after has every advantage over the Thursday. People are back. Nobody is competing with a family. And a table of six people who all moved here recently is a better room than most families manage.
If you do not have six people yet, that is what Buffet is for. Every Monday a short list of places and nights goes into the app; you pick one and claim a plate, and when three people have claimed a plate at the same pick the table is real and the chat opens. The list for Thanksgiving week lands on Monday, November 23. Claim a plate on the Friday or the Saturday, say in the chat that you are on your own for the holiday, and see how fast that becomes a plan.
Go With Someone
Every one of these is better with company, and none of them require a group chat that takes four days to decide anything.
That’s the whole idea behind Buffet. We pick the place and the time, you say yes, and you show up to find people who said yes to the same thing. No planning, no chasing, no “we should do something soon” that never becomes a date.
Download the app, and if you are new here, read how to meet people in Los Angeles before the holiday rather than after it.
