Food Runners, the dating app alternative: Run, eat, meet someone new | Lifestyle

It all began with a Paris-based engineering student’s love for flan. To motivate himself to go running, Aurélien Bernhard came up with an idea: each run would end at a new bakery where he could try a different flan. He thought the plan was fun, and invited his brother to join. A couple of weeks later, in September 2024, they wondered: “What if we opened it up to others?”

“We posted it on Mingle IRL [a dating app], but the first time, it was just the two of us,” says Bernhard, who currently interns at a bank. “The next week, more people came and by November, it got out of hand after one of our videos went viral.”

Now, it’s the bakeries that reach out to him, hoping to be part of the Running Flan Club, which now draws about 150 people to each run in Paris and has more than 15,000 followers on Instagram.

“I have to say that I like creamy flans,” says Bernhard. “In France, there are two camps: those who prefer a creamy flan with a shortcrust base, and those who like it firmer, set on a crisp, flaky pastry.”

He’s even established his own Parisian flan podium: the five-star Hotel Le Bristol, Bontemps patisserie in Le Marais, and pastry chef Nina Métayer’s creation, available at the Printemps department store. In France, flan is a classic dessert, typically sold in slices like cake.

One recent Saturday, about 100 people gathered in front of the Vincent Salur bakery and pastry shop near the Eiffel Tower for a Running Flan Club event. Milan Marinkovic, the bakery’s business development director, prepared slices of hazelnut praline flan for the runners to sample.

“Our specialty is the pistachio flan, which they tried in February. Now we want to showcase our hazelnut version in an iconic location —with a view of the Eiffel Tower,” says Marinkovic.

The crowd included fathers and daughters, a few couples, but mostly single twenty-somethings, both men and women.

“I’ve been to other running clubs, but this one is definitely the most fun,” says Claire, who came with her roommate. “Let’s just say the flan is extra motivation. I’m more motivated to run if I’m with a group, and in this club, the people are more sociable, more fun.”

Pastry chefs, restaurateurs, food chains with a strong social media presence, and even businesses just starting out were quick to partner with the group, which asks runners to pay a small fee to reserve a spot. New participants make friends, enjoy a good-value treat together, and share their experiences on social media, which ultimately attracts new customers.

The success of this flan-loving running club is rivaled only by that of the Food Runners Club — another of the new running community that blends food and fitness, which has amassed over 27,000 social media followers. That popularity has made the group an attractive partner for restaurateurs looking to boost their visibility. After their first run at the end of November, they now have ambassadors in several French cities, and in addition to the two or three races they organize each week in Paris, they also hold weekly runs in other places like Lille, Toulouse, Lyon, Annecy, and Bordeaux.

Running for pizza

“We always say that at our meetups, the warm-up is tougher than the run itself,” shouts Théo Delahye, one of the co-founders, at the top of his lungs before sounding the starting signal. “Who wants to run fast? Only one? And who wants to run slow?” he asks.

The second option gets a far bigger response than the first. Let’s be honest — the idea of indulging in a calorie bomb after a run isn’t the healthiest — but here, the runners make no apologies: “Running is a social activity, and so is gastronomy. Combine the two, and it’s even more powerful. Quite a few friend groups and even couples have formed since November. You could say it’s the new Tinder,” says Théo Chaudet, the other founder of Food Runners Club.

The duo has trademarked the brand, which appears on T-shirts with slogans like “If you see me running, I’m chasing a pizza,” and on socks bearing the group’s defining motto: “Run, eat, repeat.”

Each week, they meet in front of a restaurant — or a bakery on weekends — run about four or five miles, and then regroup at the venue to sample its specialty. At first, they chose places based on personal preference, as long as they were willing to offer a few slices of pizza or something to eat. But the success quickly outpaced them. Each event, published on an app, fills up in less than a minute, and in Paris, more than 300 people are left on the waiting list every week, as attendance is capped at around 100 people for logistical reasons.

“We try to organize one big event a month to welcome more people and open it up to those who can’t normally come,” says Chaudet, who recently traveled to Bordeaux for a run that will end on the terrace of an Italian restaurant, complete with a big group aperitif and karaoke. Unfortunately, however, there won’t be any showers waiting for them after their four-mile light jog.

In addition to these two well-known clubs, other initiatives have sprung up for lovers of different treats and indulgences: there’s a cookie club, several cheese clubs… The echo of this phenomenon has also reached New York, where two French students, Antoine and Tiphaine, who are roommates, have created the New York French Running Club, which meets every Saturday and ends with visits to bakeries and pastry shops around the Big Apple.

“There are lots of running clubs in New York, and often some people go for a coffee or a beer after the run, but it’s a one-off. We liked what we saw at the Running Flan Club in France, which is more chill,” says Antoine.

In London, the Real Food Runners association, a bit more formal than the others mentioned, aims to raise awareness about the importance of healthy eating and avoiding processed foods, organizing runs that revolve around information points where they promote healthy habits and sell T-shirts, with proceeds donated to the Public Health Organization.

And while the youth-driven Food Runners phenomenon hasn’t quite reached Spain, cafés like Osom in Madrid have their own running club for brunch and coffee lovers.

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