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Midtown Restaurant Bills Self as Hot Spot for 'Covert Job Interviews'

By Alan Neuhauser | March 13, 2013 7:00am

MIDTOWN — Job hunters searching for discreet interview spots safe from the prying eyes of current employers may have a haven in Midtown.

Restaurant Thalia, located on Eighth Avenue near West 50th Street, is billing itself as a low-pressure eatery ideal for under-the-radar meet-ups.

"We are the perfect place for covert job interviews. Your secret's safe with us," the restaurant boasted in one of two Twitter posts, adding that its Monday lunch rush was peopled by "laid back lunch meetings or secret interviews for your next job. ;)"

Industry experts called the marketing approach one-of-a-kind.

"I have not heard of a restaurant promoting themselves that way," said Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance.

"But it's a unique way to market your business. We'll see if it becomes a positive technique… now that the cat's out of the bag."

Charisse Arboleda, a hostess at Restaurant Thalia who runs the establishment's social-media outreach, said her tweets were inspired "only out of observation. Lately I see this all the time. It's just obvious, an employer waiting for someone, or a potential employee, he's funny, has energy. It's been going on."

The restaurant is large, with space to seat as many as 191 people, she pointed out, reducing the chance of an unwanted encounter with a current boss or gabby coworker.

Plus, she added, "We have a pretty nice, casual ambience. At night, it becomes a romantic place, but it's not that romantic during lunch."

Which has perhaps helped limit the restaurants' illicit rendezvous to just job interviews, as opposed to more romantically-inclined meetings that might also call for subterfuge.

"I've never really observed those," Arboleda, 33, said. "At least during lunch."