NYNext Guide To: Members-Only Clubs
A recent surge in members’ clubs is reshaping New York City’s social fabric to look a lot more like London’s: Stratified and exclusive.
New clubs like Maxime’s, San Vicente and Crane Club have replaced the hottest restaurants as the place where everyone wants to be seen. And legacy brands like Core and Casa Cipriani have retooled their physical spaces and “who should apply” lists to keep up with an increasingly competitive landscape.
The members-only clubs of today are at once social hubs and wellness retreats. Some boast bespoke private offices, others velvet-roped speakeasies and soundproof cigar lounges. There are infrared saunas, canopy-covered cold plunges and omakases — plus plenty of celebrity sightings — for initiation fees that can reach the low six figures.
Here is NYNext’s guide to members-only clubs. Apply wisely.
Aman
730 Fifth Avenue, Midtown
Cost: $200,000 initiation fee; $15,000 annual dues. Hotel and restaurants open to non-members.
Spotted: Bill Gates and girlfriend Paula Hurd, David Beckham, Tom Hanks
The vibe, from someone who knows: “The place skews older and is for rich out-of-town members or UES moneyed types.”
Is Mayor Adams’ love of Aman still worth mentioning? That $200,000 initiation fee sure is.
Developed by real estate tycoon Vladislav Doronin, the club is nestled within the Crown Building — the old Playboy offices — which is also home to the Aman hotel.
There’s a swish sushi joint, the Italian fine-dining restaurant Arva (not to be confused with trendy Avra), a three-story spa and a “smart dress required” jazz club, as well as a “pretty rooftop where mostly men hang out after work,” one guest said.
Casa Cipriani
10 South Street, FiDi
Cost: $2,000 initiation fee; $2,500-$3,900 annual dues (based on age). Hotel open to non-members; restaurant and club open to hotel guests.
Spotted: Ryan Reynolds, Leonardo DiCaprio, Taylor Swift
The vibe, from someone who knows: “Casa Cipriani is the sort of place where a young Meta executive and his mother can get dinner together on a Saturday and both feel comfortable.”
After a handful of members were reportedly banished for snapping photos of Taylor Swift and then-boyfriend Matty Healy in 2023 — violating the club’s no-pics policy — Casa Cip rebranded its roster to move away from, as one source said at the time, “girls looking for sugar daddies.”
But the opulent Art Deco-style club still delivers a festive atmosphere and panoramic views as good as its signature peach bellini. It also features a variety of lounges, dining spaces and bars suited to whichever F. Scott Fitzgerald novel you’d like to pretend you’re in.
Casa Tua
20 East 76th Street, Upper East Side
Cost: $1,600 initiation fee; $4,300 annual dues. Restaurant open to non-members.
Spotted: Ramona Singer, Rosanna Scotto, PR maven Alison Brod
The vibe, from someone who knows: “If you have been to the Miami outpost then you know what you are getting. It’s a place to see and be seen … a luxe experience that hawks back to an old age of glamour.”
After starting in South Beach, Casa Tua founder Miky Grendene brought his gallery-slash-restaurant to Paris, Aspen and, in October 2024, the Surrey Hotel on the Upper East Side.
Considering how beloved his Miami locale is, the bar was set sky-high. So far, reviews have been mixed. The Italian food (which includes a $22 cup of minestrone), diners say, is good but not mind-blowing.
But members love the service and ambience of the separate private club, with a Frank Gehry sculpture posted unassumingly by the stairs. It’s small and intimate, with good music and a “sort of sexy vibe,” a member said. “I’m told it is based off of Miky’s home.”
Chez Margaux
403 W. 13th Street, Meatpacking District
Cost: $1,000-$2,000 initiation fee; $1,800-$2,600 annual dues
Spotted: Taylor Swift, Zoë Kravitz, Gigi Hadid
The vibe, from someone who knows: “When they bring Berlin’s legendary DJ Rampa to perform after hours, you can pack into a comically hot crowd and feel — for the first time in a decade — that maybe New York is back.”
A Parisian-style supper club — think ruby-red velvet banquettes and dim lighting — designed for millennials and Gen Z, Margaux turned white hot after multiple appearances from Swift (a true fan, she bought memberships for her entire team).
Before 11 p.m., it’s all about Jean-Georges’ modern French cuisine; after, DJs transform the club’s caviar-and-cocktails bar into hotspot Gaux Gaux.
“You can have a totally different experience at Chez Margaux every night of the week,” one member reported. But a frequent guest sniffed: “Chez Margaux lays it on really thick with the boudoir/clandestine thing. To me, it shows how it’s become necessary for restaurants to call themselves ‘private clubs’ just to hang. It’s a restaurant.”
That said, members are not guaranteed a table at Chez, as insiders call it.
Colette
767 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side
Cost: $125,000 initiation fee; $36,000 annual dues
Spotted: Goldman Sachs vice-chairman Jim Donovan, Diane von Furstenberg, Tory Burch
The vibe, from someone who knows: “More work than play.”
For those who truly want to mix work and pleasure, the ultra-exclusive private workspace, Colette — capped at 300 members — is a sleek destination for Zoom calls, work dinners and networking over cocktails.
More popular for its conference rooms with uniformed butlers than its omakase option at Coco’s, the restaurant inside, Colette is an ideally secluded space for private events and meetings. And the 37th-floor views of Central Park are swell.
Core
711 Fifth Avenue, Midtown East
Cost: $15,000 initiation fees for individuals and $100,000 for families; $15,000-$18,000 annual dues
Spotted: Kenneth Cole, Steve Cohen, Bill Ackman
The vibe, from someone who knows: “The art is great. The food is great. The members are powerful, understated and well-dressed. The staff appear from thin air and then disappear again. S—t is getting done here that will affect your life whether you like it or not.”
One of the original pre-’08 recession clubs, Core opened in 2005 but got a facelift in 2023 when it moved to a four-story, 60,000-square-foot location on Fifth Avenue.
While the old space, one insider said, was “sterile,” members are crazy about the new expanded art gallery, juice bar, infrared saunas, 11-hotel suites (open only to members) and a swoon-worthy rooftop terrace. The crowd is primarily finance-focused.
Crane Club
85 Tenth Avenue, Chelsea
Cost: $1,000 initiation fee; $3,000-$5,000 annual dues (based on age). Restaurant open to non-members.
Spotted: Winnie Harlow, Bill Maher, Chelsea Clinton, Maye Musk
The vibe, from someone who knows: “Crane has the feel of a cool ’60s European lounge — from its mirrored ceilings and Anton Lorenz chairs to its cozy booths. Compared to most clubs, the food is next level.”
Evangelists say the food — including a parmesan strip steak, bone marrow with bacon jam, and a preserved tomato dish — at Crane’s is the best of all the club’s in the city.
After dinner, the complimentary Swedish candy bar provides a sugar high to keep you going under the disco ball in the private basement speakeasy.
While Chez Margaux is content to grant membership to anyone with the requisite funds, Crane — opened by nightlife impresario Noah Tepperberg of TAO Group — is slowly accepting members to make sure the little things are perfect before they scale up. (Though, one member said, “I walked in one night on Chelsea Clinton’s birthday.”)
FlyFish
141 East Houston Street, Lower East Side
Cost: $1,500 initiation fee for anyone who didn’t join via NFT; $3,500 annual fees.
Spotted: Bethenny Frankel, NY Knicks President Leon Rose and players Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns
The vibe, from someone who knows: “The table chatter is more about crypto than Capri.”
FlyFish Club may be the only good thing to come out of the NFT craze.
In January 2022, tech guru Gary Vaynerchuk launched a non-fungible token that let anyone buy a membership for a club that didn’t yet exist — raising $14 million to build out lush FlyFish.
Food is the true drawing card for members, thanks in no small part to in-house Insta-famous Chef Josh Capon. Members rave about new dishes like steak-and-eggs, sushi and crowd pleasers like chicken nuggets.
“FlyFish has managed to stay packed every night of the week,” one source said of the buzzy dining room that is often full until 2 a.m.
Maxime’s
848 Madison Avenue, Upper East Side
Cost: Management declined to share.
Spotted: Richard Plepler
The vibe, from someone who knows: “It’s very British. And you need a jacket. And no tables of more than four people of the same sex “
Not a lot is known yet about English private-club vet Robin Birley’s first foray into the US, which quietly opened last month.
But there’s plenty of buzz around the 12,000-square-foot space on the site of the old Westbury Hotel, considering Birley’s success with London’s 5 Hertford Street (5HS) and Oswald’s, which are beloved by celebs including Harry Styles, Margot Robbie, Mick Jagger, Leonardo DiCaprio and Boris Johnson.
Birley boasts a mighty pedigree, as his father, Mark, opened London’s legendary Annabel’s in the ’70s. (“Throw a stone and you’ll hit a multimillion dollar work of art,” one visitor told us of Annabel’s.)
Maxime’s is reportedly named for Maxime Le Bailly, Comtesse de La Failaise, Birley’s aunt and a model and underground film star in the 1950s and ’60s.
San Vicente West Village
115 Jane St., West Village
Cost: $3,000-$15,000 initiation fee; $1,800-$4,200 annual dues (both depend on age; membership also grants access to SV’s locations on the West Coast)
Spotted: Scarlett Johansson, Eric Schmidt, George Clooney
The vibe, from someone who knows: “Taking a lap here offers more networking promise than an entire week at Allen & Co.’s Sun Valley.”
The first San Vicente outpost on the East Coast opened in mid-March and has quickly become the most-coveted membership in the city — with literal lines wrapping around the block to get in.
The brainchild of hotelier Jeff Klein — whose Sunset Tower and Tower Bar in West Hollywood are celebrity staples — SV began in West Hollywood in 2018 and added a Santa Monica outpost last year. A-list fans include Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Tom Ford, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Given that roster, it’s no surprise that members and guests are required to cover phone cameras with stickers.
The menu — ranging from buffalo cauliflower to sushi to steak — has a wide and comfortable “I can eat here everyday” selection. But amid high dinner demand from 500 members, the wait for a table can be long; Klein is currently ramping up staffing.
Soho House
29-35 Ninth Avenue, Meatpacking District
Cost: $460-$1,082 initiation fee; $5,700-$2,850 annual dues (depends on age and the number of clubs you wish to access). Hotel open to non-members; restaurant open to hotel guests.
Spotted: Derek Jeter, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel
The vibe, from someone who knows: “In the summer it draws 20-somethings to its rooftop pool made famous by Sex and the City — and it gets hot and sticky and extremely crowded. The clickety-clack of keyboards until the evening is a bit of a buzzkill, but is definitely a benefit to the kids bootstrapping their next startup.”
In 2003, Soho House — imported from London — introduced NYC to a new, trendy kind of members club. It’s now expanded to more than 40 iterations across the globe, including Ludlow House and The Ned in Manhattan, and Dumbo House in Brooklyn. (Handy for world travelers, who can book bedrooms at the brand’s hotels and resorts for reduced rates.)
While the competition has claimed a lot of the limelight, Soho House is still filled to the brim throughout the day — you’ll hear lots of chatter about digital marketing and influencing, and the crunch of avocado toast. And come night time, members pop in for cocktails, movie screenings, concerts and the Italian-themed food Soho House offers worldwide.
The Twenty Two
16 E 16th St, Union Square
Cost: $750 initiation fee; $1,200-$4,500 annual dues. Restaurant and hotel open to non-members.
Spotted: Kendall Jenner, Hailey Bieber, Sandra Lee
The vibe, from someone who knows: “Its old-luxury decor belies its violently hip crowd.”
Hotelier Navid Mirtorabi and billionaire investor Jamie Reuben have brought another London hotspot to NYC, this one geared toward an eclectic mix of fashion and art world types, sources tell us.
But it’s really Cafe Zaffri, from restaurateurs Jennifer and Nicole Vitagliano — the twins behind Raf’s and the Musket Room — that has stolen the show.
By 8 p.m. on a Saturday, the Mediterranean cafe’s waiting area is jammed; by 10, it’s overflowing with a chic crowd of 20- and 30-somethings.
Zero Bond
0 Bond St., NoHo
Cost: $750-$4,000 initiation fee; $2,500-$4,400 annual dues (based on age)
Spotted: Kim Kardashian, Julia Fox, J Balvin, Dua Lipa, Bella Hadid, Mayor Adams
The vibe, from someone who knows: “You feel like a sultry James Bond character every time you enter.”
Opened in 2020 by nightlife legend Scott Sartiano (1OAK, Butter, Spa), Zero Bond is no longer the new kid on the block. And yet, the club is still a staple among the culturally rich and artsy.
Housed in a 20,000-square-foot loft, the club offers a plethora of meeting spaces — often occupied by local creatives and entrepreneurs — as well as an omakase bar, private screening room and Assouline library.
The food at Zero Bond is reliably some of the best and consistent in NYC’s private club world, and the chocolate chip cookie, one member says, is a magical experience.
This story is part of NYNext, an indispensable insider insight into the innovations, moonshots and political chess moves that matter most to NYC’s power players (and those who aspire to be).
ZZ’s
37 Hudson Yards
Cost: $20,000 initiation fee; $10,000 annual dues
Spotted: Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Travis Scott, Derek Jeter
The vibe, from someone who knows: “Athletes like it, I think, because it’s near the West Side Highway — and therefore convenient to New Jersey — and the Garden.”
At ZZ’s — launched by Major Food Group, the restaurant juggernaut behind Carbone, Torrisi and The Grill — Founders’ Room, you can order anything you want (just give them 48 hours notice). It’s also the one place in the world where you can have both Carbone’s spicy rigatoni and ZZ’s lobster dumplings at the same time.
The food upstairs is classic Carbone; ZZ’s on the first floor offers a unique Japanese menu — definitely not your standard SushiSeki fare. “ZZ’s is a membership club, but it is also a fan club — and Major Food Group has a lot of devoted fans,” one member said.
Listening to the occasional live jazz act feels right amid the lavish, velvety decor and art curated by founding member Vito Schnabel.
Send NYNext a tip: nynextlydia@nypost.com
