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Business of Fashion
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Business of Fashion
How to Make a Members Club Work in New York
NEW YORK — In New York, where snagging a table at a buzzy new restaurant is a badge of honour, a new wave of members clubs with roots in London and Los Angeles are betting they can turn belonging into the next hot social signifier. But in a city where trends fade as quickly as they appear, can these clubs sustain Manhattanites' interest? A number of new members clubs have opened in Manhattan this year, many the offspring of London-based hospitality groups, where members' clubs are deeply embedded in the local culture. British hospitality guru Robin Birley, of 5 Hertford and Annabel's fame, opened Maxime's on the Upper East Side in March. Another London hotspot, The Twenty Two, landed in New York last month too. Clubs with roots in LA and Miami are also flocking to the city. West Hollywood entertainment mogul meeting ground San Vicente Bungalows took root in the West Village in March, and Miami's Casa Tua opened in The Surrey Hotel last October. These new entrants follow on the heels of the likes of Casa Cipriani, Casa Cruz and Zero Bond. Private clubs are not new to New York. But old-school clubs, like the Metropolitan, Union and University clubs, don't carry much cachet with Millennials and Gen-Z who are schooled in signalling status by sharing experiences on social media, and want clubs with an atmosphere more suited to their generation. But New York City may prove hard for this new wave of members clubs to crack because 'in New York, paying for something isn't cool,' said Annabel Schwartz, founder of hospitality agency House of Talana, who previously managed member relations for San Vicente Bungalows and Soho House. New Yorkers are 'too savvy, and we demand way more than just a good dinner and a beautiful space with a celebrity in the corner. Unlike Los Angeles, throw a celebrity in the corner, you're pretty much on your way to success.' ADVERTISEMENT Instead, she said, locals are more nostalgic for a time when you had to earn the respect of the maître d' to get a table at one of the city's hot restaurants. In New York, where artists, influencers and celebrities have easy access to free drinks and meals, access carries more social clout than money. Behind the Rush While some members clubs, like Soho House, experimented with bringing the London model overseas in the early 2000s, the recent opportunity is more dynamic. Post-Covid, the need for spaces beyond home and office sent the members club trend skyrocketing in New York. And as hospitality professionals picked up on the membership model's ability to keep charging throughout the pandemic while hotels and restaurants suffered, more started looking to it as a reliable revenue stream. Hotels like Aman NYC and Fasano Fifth Avenue opened members-only sections, as did hospitality groups including Tao Group, which opened Crane Club, Major Food Group with ZZ's and Jean-Georges Restaurants with Chez Margaux. Unlike their predecessors, the new clubs are entering the city in such rapid succession that they're attracting more attention, which is helping to cement membership as a new status symbol. Social media has added further momentum; having the ability to post and geotag their location online is just another way for members to signal clout. There appears to be appetite for the rush of new openings — Scott Sartiano, founder of five-year-old Zero Bond said that over 14,000 people have applied for membership and not gotten in. But the market is competitive, and it's not just any space that can successfully bring the model to life, nor combat New Yorkers' attraction to all things shiny and new. 'Yes … it's a saturated market,' said Schwartz. 'But if we have incredible places that come onto the market that really deliver the experience that a membership club should be, I think that there's a huge longevity still available for them.' Cautionary Tales Still, many clubs have fallen victim to New Yorkers' high standards, short attention spans and distaste for the hoi polloi. ADVERTISEMENT When Soho House went public in 2021, it lost cachet as it sought to satisfy shareholders with a growing number of global franchises and by offering memberships to those outside creative fields, while its original purpose was to serve those who had historically been left out of members' clubs. It became 'for the masses,' according to Ariela Kiradjian, co-founder and chief operating officer at the Boutique & Luxury Lodging Association. Even worse, getting a table at the clubs became just as challenging as any other popular restaurant, eliminating the convenience members expected. Charging exorbitant fees can be just as harmful as scaling too fast. Casa Cruz, which has its roots in London, charged up to half a million dollars to join as an investor-member, but a large part of the townhouse soon opened to the public, with certain sections staying members-only. When luxury content creator Julia Hackman Chafé visited the club at the peak of its popularity in 2022, she found the experience to be a letdown. 'At the time it was the newest, hottest place and [we] worked very hard to get that reservation … and it was filled with old white guys,' she said. 'There wasn't a young, happening crowd by any means.' Curating the Right Crowd In curating their member roster, clubs need to be thoughtful about targeting and cultivating a specific tribe with shared interests — not just those with the most money. 'The proliferation of clubs kind of creates a 'choose your sports team' mentality,' said Nadine Choe, founder of hospitality newsletter and podcast The Stanza. 'If I'm a member at Chez Margaux, it probably means I'm younger, and I like to party. If I'm a member at Casa Cipriani, I probably divide my time between New York and Milan and have to do business with Italian people.' But in a city that's heavily career-driven, members' rapport should go above and beyond their professions, according to Schwartz, and be rooted in their ability to engage and have fun together — providing a respite from work and capturing the essence of a memorable night out in New York. When selecting members, Schwartz elaborated that teams need to ask themselves whether groups sitting at neighbouring tables will be interested in talking to one another, and consider their role in facilitating connections. She highlighted one LA club that asked potential members to tell them a funny story in the interview process to get a sense of their personality. At Zero Bond, Sartiano personally reviews every application the club receives and is thoughtful about how people from different walks of life will come together. He thinks of it like 'having a dinner party at your house and you're trying to bring old friends with new friends and put them together and form new relationships for people,' he said. ADVERTISEMENT Getting the crowd right can even prompt convenience-minded New Yorkers to go out of their way for a visit. Hackman Chafé pointed to Casa Cipriani's crowd as one of the reasons it manages to get members to consistently make the journey there, even if its lower Manhattan location can be out of the way for many. Above all, community is particularly important in a city that can feel 'lonely,' said Kiradjian. 'Running into people you know' in the city is a clear value proposition because 'from a psychological standpoint, you feel important… So people will 100 percent pay a premium to find that belonging in that community,' she said. A Seamless Second Home Having a go-to restaurant in New York where you are known is a rare feat in a city of eight million, and comes with spending considerable time in the city. So in addition to understanding their broader community, investing time in getting to know their individual guests and their preferences can help clubs make their members feel seen. 'The ownership of the club needs to have this local maître d' mentality,' said Choe. 'Think about your favourite corner restaurant that you go to all the time. Why do you like going there? Because you feel seen. They know your name. They know how you like to drink your martini.' This type of attention to detail that makes members feel at home gives them a reason to pick a specific club over the other options available to them in an expensive city where they're likely to be choosy. Consistency in staff is one way for clubs to build relationships with their members — Zero Bond, for instance, has had the same staff since opening, and Sartiano spends 10 to 12 hours there every day. Convenience is another non-negotiable in a city notorious for difficult reservations. Being greeted by a host who knows your name is important, but the ability to drop by for spontaneous dinners and drinks can eliminate a lot of stress from an otherwise high-octane city. Rather than being faced with an hour-long wait for a restaurant that's at capacity, 'the biggest positive thing about members clubs is knowing that when they come here on a Friday night, say it's 11pm or 1am, we're going to welcome them through the doors,' said Eric Freitas Orford, general manager of The Twenty Two. But to ensure a membership opportunity's longevity, teams need to ensure they can deliver the unique creative crossover and spontaneity that New Yorkers love about their city. 'You have to really understand the landscape, the permitting, the licensing, the staff, how to get them, and most importantly, the people of New York City, because they have access to anything they want at any time they want it,' said Sartiano. 'So how do you build something unique and special enough that they want to pay to be a part of it long term?'
New York Times
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
San Vicente Bungalows Brings FOMO to New York
There was no image of Lady Gaga at 3 a.m., hanging near the wall with various members of Arcade Fire and Eddie Vedder. No images of Kevin Costner, single and ready to mingle by the bar. No images of Cher and Lauryn Hill over at the banquettes of the softly lit dining room. The owners of San Vicente West Village had made sure that no paparazzi could be found inside Jane Street last Friday despite the fact that some of the biggest names in music and Hollywood had come for a party after the Saturday Night Live 50th-anniversary concert at Radio City Music Hall. Had any of those images been beamed across the internet, it might have built a sense that the first event at SVB, which officially opens in March, was a rager for the ages. Perhaps that is the point: You had to be there. Among New Yorkers who flock to power and crave exclusivity, the upcoming opening of Los Angeles's best private club is being greeted with a sense of urgency that is second only to the future of democracy. 'Everyone in fashion has been talking about this club, whether to join, how to get on the list,' said Kendall Werts, a founder of the Jeffries, an agency at the intersection of branding and celebrity. San Vicente West Village is the brainchild of Jeff Klein, a businessman with a long track record in hospitality, who opened San Vicente Bungalows Los Angeles in 2018. In the 1990s, Mr. Klein bet that hotels would be to that decade what nightclubs had been to the 1980s. In 2004, Mr. Klein spent $18 million to buy the dilapidated Sunset Tower Hotel in Los Angeles. It went on to become the town's premier canteen for moguls and movie stars (think: Jennifer Aniston, Jeff Bezos, George Clooney) and, for several years, it was the site of Vanity Fair's famous Oscars party. Mr. Klein also teamed up with the magazine's former editor, Graydon Carter, on The Monkey Bar, a restaurant in Midtown Manhattan. But the real follow-up to the Sunset Tower was the San Vicente Bungalows, a members-only club that changed how celebrities could socialize. A cynic might say the idea was to create a safe space for the town's best-known and best-connected people, one where they could gawk at and hit on one another without having those moments memorialized in a bad iPhone picture taken by a tourist. (The club requires all guests to cover their phone cameras with stickers for the duration of their stay.) The challenges associated with navigating Los Angeles's sprawl also worked in the club's favor. With fewer ways to run into people, they settled into picking one. Dues ran around $4,000, not including initiation fees that ranged from $3,000 to $15,000, depending on age. Among those who joined were Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Tom Ford. 'When I'm in L.A, if I'm not eating at home, I'm at San Vicente. Before that, I was at Tower Bar,' Mr. Ford said by phone last week. 'It's like I'm at home. They know my favorite table and what I like. My Coca-Cola arrives before I ask for it. You feel Jeff's presence in every way.' After the coronavirus pandemic, an idea began to gnaw at Mr. Klein: Might he be able to bottle the magic in Los Angeles and bring it back to the city he'd left behind? In short order, he decided to test his luck at the Jane Hotel, a red brick West Village landmark along the West Side Highway. The blowback and intrigue from New Yorkers began as soon as the first invitations to join were extended. A select group of current members were instructed to invite their friends or people who they thought should be members. In emails, those new insiders were given the rare opportunity to join without the formal review process that most members were subjected to. The membership is being vetted by Gabe Doppelt, a British magazine editor who cut her teeth as the assistant to Anna Wintour and Tina Brown. After going on to be the editor of Mademoiselle, she oversaw Hollywood coverage at W magazine and The Daily Beast. People who did not get invites were angry about not being invited. People who did get invites were angry about the fees, especially the older ones and some of the most creative ones who were not high-net-worth individuals. Prospective invitees were asked to upload their drivers licenses so that their age-adjusted fees could be determined. No one liked that. It so happens that San Vicente's annual fees are in the same ballpark as those of other New York City private social clubs, such as Casa Cipriani and Chez Margaux. They're considerably cheaper than the Core Club's. A fair amount of debate began about whether the city had enough juice left to create a lasting clubhouse full of people who were both creative enough and financially solvent enough to pay for membership. Power in New York City is often cultural as much as it is capital. 'Does real fabulousness even take place in public anymore? Isn't it behind closed doors in other people's homes?' said Jon Reinish, a well-connected political consultant who received an invitation to the club last month and had not yet joined. 'I just don't know that it exists in Manhattan anymore the way it did during the days of Michael's the Grill Room and Mortimer's, and it's very hard to reverse-engineer it any kind of lasting way.' But for every person sniping, another was joining. Also helping ensure success: Mr. Klein's unique popularity, according to Kevin Huvane, who, as the co-chairman of Creative Artists Agency, helps guide the careers of many San Vicente regulars, among them Ms. Aniston, Demi Moore and Jennifer Lopez. 'People underestimate good will,' he said, before going on to liken Mr. Klein to Joe Allen, the impresario whose restaurants in the theater district established him as a king of Broadway. The night after the star-studded S.N.L. party, Mr. Werts of the Jeffries was among roughly a thousand people who attended a hard-hat party celebrating the club's upcoming opening. Others in the crowd included the power literary agent David Kuhn, the television mogul Darren Starr, the actress Zooey Deschanel and the political pundit Molly Jong-Fast. A magazine editor who earlier in the week had complained to me about having wasted several thousand dollars to join (largely because of FOMO) was now grousing about the long line for the coat check. Even Mr. Klein appeared a little embarrassed by the size of the crowd. A few feet away, he talked to Soon-Yi Previn, the wife of Woody Allen. 'It's a good thing Woody didn't come,' Mr. Klein said. 'It's too crowded.' Officially, Mr. Klein was not participating with this piece. Last December, he gave an interview to The New York Times in connection with the opening of a San Vicente outpost in Santa Monica, Calif. After its publication, Jay-Z asked him why on earth he'd cooperated with it. After all, a central promise of the club is privacy for its members. (Some have been suspended for uploading pictures to Instagram.) And Mr. Klein had to concede that Jay-Z had a point. Still, he also knew that in a town of journalists, nothing about the weekend was going to be totally off the record. And with opening costs in the $130 million range, he was not going to be able to make that back without some press. ('Oof, that's a lot of money,' said Mr. Huvane, when told the number). So Mr. Klein did not exactly shoo me away as he greeted Risa Heller, a crisis manager whose clients have included Jeff Zucker and Anthony Weiner. Waiters marched around the space serving crispy shrimp satays and cappuccino-flavored macaroons. Ms. Jong Fast and Ms. Deschanel went upstairs to see the movie theater, then checked out a few of the guest suites, where the hardwood floors had an amber hue and the bed linens were airy and white. 'This would be a great place to cheat on your spouse,' said Ms. Jong-Fast, stopping for a minute to admire a pumpkin-colored sofa with a Hudson County vibe. 'Although maybe that's more Casa Cipriani.'
