HOTWIRE OFFERS MATCHMAKING WITH COFFEE. You might find your soul mate this Valentines Day season at Hotwire Coffee on California Avenue. The coffee house offers a date-matching bulletin board crowded with photos of singles, which can be cross-referenced on their web site. D'Laina Boynton, 26, watches Blayne Walsh, 23, post his photo on the board. Her headshot was posted on the board next. The shop will host a singles party Saturday at 5 p.m.
<b>Photo by Steve Shay</b>
Hotwire Coffee has garnered the reputation as a cozy place to gather, not just sip-and-run, and unattached customers are joining a new date-matching service the shop provides.
On the wall across Hotwire Coffee's bank of four computers hangs a bulletin board crowded with snapshots of patrons seeking partners. Each photo has a number corresponding to a Valentine goodie bag hanging on one of three walls. A customer signs up, posts a headshot, views potential partners, then places an email address, phone number, or little gift inside another's bag, or bags. Hotwire Coffee's web site keeps track of participants, as does its matchmaking baristas.
This game of hook-up was cooked up by owner Lora Lewis, employee Rena Poppell, who soon opens a new Hotwire Coffee near Pike Place Market, and Christina, a regular customer. Both Lewis and Poppell are married. Christina is single.
"Once when I came into the coffee shop Lora and Rena said, 'You should have been here when we opened this morning. There was this guy who we wanted you to meet.' Well, he was a regular, but I'd never come in early enough to meet him," said the 30 year-old graduate student working on her PhD in English.
The three ladies realized that, with a little organizing, those passing through the caf
