Single but Not Solo

It’s Thursday, and those “Seinfeld” episodes just aren’t cutting through the boredom. As for “Friends,” the self-absorbed pratfalls went stale for you by the end of last season.

What to do?

Leave the box behind and get out.

That’s what many singles and minglers are doing every Thursday night. A couple hundred or so kick-start the weekend by finding their way to Tutto Mare, a restaurant and bar in Fashion Island Newport Beach.

It turns out that TNTM--Thursday night at Tutto Mare--has been the coded command in the singles scene for five years.

General manager Pepe Amespil says it started this way: In 1992, Fashion Island sponsored a jazz festival, and when the music stopped, the crowd headed to Tutto Mare to hang out.

“Each week, as more people came in, we got to the point where we considered expanding the bar because there was no room for everyone.”

Saturday is the busiest night, when “the crowd comes in for dinner,” Amespil says. “On Thursday, it’s mostly get a drink and meet friends.” Instead of ordering Manila clams, they’re asking for champagne. And martinis, the latest retro drink to make a comeback. Martinis with olives, martinis with twists, martinis with anchovies.

“It’s a classy crowd, all professionals,” he says. “Singles companies [and other dating services] send members here to feel comfortable while they’re on their first date.”

The fallout to success? Across the street, the rival Twin Palms restaurant has grown strong with the overflow crowds. “I’ll have to go over there and see what they’re doing,” says Amespil. “But our customers always come back to us because of our crowd.”