You may be wondering where we’ve been, with no dispatches to fuel martini hour conversation every Tuesday.

Summer is nigh, and we’ve taken off to get some much-needed respite for the spring and early summer.

We’ll be back at 3PM on Tuesday, June 9, with more of everything you love, on a fortnightly publishing schedule. Be ready to expect more deep dives, interviews, and dispatches from clubland.

Thank you for reading Clubland USA! In the meantime—please keep us abreast of your summer plans. We’d love to hear all about your clubby holidays you’ve planned for yourselves!

“You know what’s disturbing me, Leonard,” a club curmudgeon in Philadelphia once told me over cigars and martinis.

“What’s that?,” I inquired.

“There’s just so many of these young people joining the club now and they’re bringing so many of their friends and it’s changing the place,” he responded.

Perplexed, I asked, “What do you mean by young members?”

“Oh, I’d say mid-40s,” he said.

Soon after, the patio went completely silent.

The most charitable reading of this anecdote could be that this particular Main Line Club’s admissions committee should better vet its prospective members. Or, better yet, it’s members might benefit from reading Ishaan Jajodia’s Clubhouse Guide in this issue about proposing new members.

The more likely lesson is that some Clubs need reminders that exclusivity for exclusivity’s sake is the quickest way to club closure. Or the worst case scenario: a call from your friendly private equity associate seeking to score their next deal.

Clubhouse Guide: Proposing New Members

You’ve become a member of a club and managed to become part of its social fabric. What do you do next? Obviously, spread news of good tidings—find friends you deem suitable, and introduce them to your club, first as guests, and, hopefully, next, as members.

Proposing someone for membership is a serious commitment, but it’s how most make their first entrance to clubland if they aren’t born in or marry in. It’s no light matter, however, for you will always be tied in holy club-matrimony to those who you propose for membership until you choose to leave the club—and beyond—so take what follows seriously.

Clubs need members. Without members, clubland is just a shell of buildings with grand facades and nothing to show for it. Members make the magic happen; without them, it goes poof!

Think carefully about who you want as a fellow member. You’d be surprised—sometimes your best friends aren’t the best members of a club. Instead, focus yourself on whether someone is clubbable or not, and whether someone does indeed want to spend their time and their money—significant and valuable chunks of both, I may add—to the institution you so dearly love.

Make sure they are financially solvent, lest they fall behind on a bill—you will most certainly hear from your general manager if they do. It is hard to not impress this point home, and many horror stories have been heard of this nature.

They are, for all intents are purposes, a mirror image of you. You are responsible for an unspecified amount of time for their conduct, appearance, interactions, and socialisation. It is your responsibility to show them the particular ways of your club, from the quirks of the bartenders to the quiet places where private conversations can be had without interruption. Show them places where it is okay to use your phone; everything else is off-bounds. Introduce them to the sports pros and offer to introduce them to friends of similar ability and skill in the sports they are interested in.

But, you may ask, aren’t we getting ahead of ourselves?

I suspect not. If you can’t imagine yourself doing this for your proposed member, then don’t do it. You are their social shepherd. You are ultimately responsible for their actions, at least until they are out of double-secret probation.

Many clubs have one or either of the following pathways to introduce new members.

Some clubs, like the Union League Club and the University Club, both in New York City, insist on summer memberships as a de facto prerequisite to becoming a full member of the club.

Here you propose your intended for a summer, in the hopes that they may find more friends who will bolster their application come fall. For the club, summer serves as an informal probation period to weed out the unwanted and the undesirables.

For you, however, you’ll enjoy lowered rates and dues, and while you have many, you will not have all the privileges of membership. It will also give you the opportunity to see whether you really enjoy the club before forking over initiation and dues at yet another club.

On the other hand, some clubs, like The Players and the New Haven Lawn Club only accept applications for full membership, regardless of season, which entails a full-frontal acceptance of the membership process.

As a proposer, it’s your job to vouch for the candidate once candidacy reaches the membership committee, which will ultimately adjudicate the application.

Getting an application through a membership committee requires careful shepherding on the part of the proposer. You will, as is the norm, need at least one or two more seconders willing to vouch for you, though some clubs have been known to ask for as many as seven or ten.

Occasionally proposers have been known to have been invited to committee meetings to make the case for their candidates, and many clubs also require interviews with board members or the membership committee.

You might think your duties to your proposed candidate are over if they cross the finish line and are accepted. But you’re wrong.

You’re just getting started. At this point, you’re their shepherd, their guardian. Think of them as a child being thrown off the deep end—you’ve granted them access to the pool, but now you have to show them the ways of the pool.

Bring them to events with you. Introduce them to different informal and formal groups of members. Show them why you love the club from the inside out, quirks and all, and set them up to become members in their own right and on their own terms once they’re done with your apprenticeship.

Please be sure to read next week’s issue on Tuesday, April 21.

No issue this week — but we’re already deep into next week’s.

Tonight, Leonard Robinson will be participating in a quintessential Clubland ritual: bringing prospective club members to a “Prospective Member’s Night”. Picture a fantastic evening in a (usually) wood-paneled room with stiff cocktails and passed hors d'oeuvres chatting about the club’s stained glass windows, architecture terms that you’ve heard on your walk over and hinting around hoping that someone just says the true cost of membership.

But Leonard won’t be joining a new club, but rather, introducing new members to his storied Manhattan club.

Next week’s issue will include his reflections on his (first) proposal process and Ishaan Jajodia will present a new Clubhouse Guide on picking the best candidate to propose for club membership.

Please enjoy these past selections from our archives. See you next week!

The Art of the Club

Being clubbable has always been an art, and never a science. Like all arts, there are rules, norms that govern it, and if you follow them too stringently all you get is ossification.

There is, however, a lot more to the art of the club than being clubbable. For once, clubs have long played host to art collections of note.

To read more of Ishaan’s deep dive into art and Clubland, please click here.

Ushering a New Golden Age of Fraternalism

Q&A with Viridian Club’s Alex Pacheco

by Leonard Robinson

Clubland USA: When you speak of the Golden Age of Fraternalism and Viridian being a part of a sort of new age of this, what do you mean?

Pacheco: Across the country, we have a major trust and national identity problem that’s not unseen before in American history. We had a similar effect after the Civil War and it was still worse than what we had today which inspired me to look to historical precedent.

From about 1870 to 1920, in a period known as the Golden Age of Fraternalism, our country rebuilt trust and a national identity despite having extremely high levels of foreign-born percentage of the population. At its peak during this period, 40% of adult males in the United States were members of at least one private fraternal societies.

It was during this period when most of the nation’s oldest clubs, such as the Union Club in New York and the Bohemian Club in San Francisco, were founded. This is where we got collegiate fraternities and sororities as well.

We’ve all seemed to have forgotten the reason that we have these institutions. People don’t make clubs just to say, “Here’s a circle, there’s exclusivity, we’re in, you’re out.” It’s not about that.

Viridian Club wants to bring that about the same spirit that led to the founding of many of these older clubs to our current generation.

To read more of this Q&A, please click here.

We sincerely appreciate your patience as we’ve navigated getting this week’s issue out in a timely manner. We appreciate your continued readership and look forward to seeing you next week.

Cape Cod Country Club will have another season of play before construction on a proposed solar farm begins. The country club to solar farm conversion isn’t new, but has become widely popular in Massachusetts.

The Bay State has seen several clubs in recent years make this transition, including the Maplegate Country Club in Franklin and Bellingham, which was sold earlier this year for a whopping $25 million to NextGrid, a San Francisco-based solar energy developer.

This will also notably result in an additional $280,000 in the town’s coffers, as tax incentives that were once attached to the club will come to close. This solar conversion project received no form of government funding.

Skyline Country Club in the Berkshires was sold to a solar energy developer in 2021, as reported by the Berkshire Eagle.

Capital City Cash Crunch

Tallahassee’s Capital City Country Club is mulling either selling to a private equity firm or hiking its membership rates to foot the bill for much needed improvements.

Members received a letter urging them to attend a meeting on Monday, April 6 to discuss options to make much needed improvements to the club’s facilities.

What’s the least painful hit to the wallet, you ask? Raising rates to a whopping $25,000, according to local reports. Another option, the club says, is to sell the Club to a private equity firm.

Ishaan Jajodia, in an earlier issue of Clubland USA, warned of the risks that arise from the private equity takeover of one’s beloved clubhouse.

He writes, “There’s a firm, for instance, that promises members whose clubs have been taken over the ability to retain an advisory position, but the club will no longer be member-owned-and-managed, and will lose its gold standard status. Usually, the recapitalisation involves a private equity firm buying up the debt that a club has and acquiring the underlying assets—the clubhouse and facilities—and trying to streamline operations.”

What can one expect at this next stage?

Your club bill to include charges for club sodas, iced tea and water. And say goodbye to the duly-elected club president that you can hound in pursuit of sharing unsolicited and unrequited advice and comments.

Thanks for reading this week’s issue of Clubland USA. - LR/IJ

It’s also the (and soon to be even more) talk of many Club Tables across the country as its members become embroiled in a lawsuit that could potentially challenge the clubs’ male-only status. Ishaan Jajodia brings more on this.

This also seems the perfect time for us to announce that Clubland USA will be on a publishing holiday for the entire month of May. Subscriptions will be paused during this period and we look forward to returning to your inboxes rejuvenated and with the best club stories from around the country.

See you next week!

Probing into The Plantation Club

By: Ishaan Jajodia

The men who make up the ranks of members of the Indio, California Plantation Golf Club could face hefty fines that result in having to allow women past far more than its parking lot.

A lawsuit has been filed against the Club alleging discriminatory behavior, conspiracy and racketeering, tax fraud, and violations of the Securities Exchange Act and the California Civil Rights Act.

The Plantation isn’t a stranger to controversy ever since the club was among the last entities to obtain IRS 501 c(7) status as a male-only club in the 1990s. The Club has gone to great lengths to protect its status as male only with some reports claiming that the Club prevents women from the grounds past the parking lot.

It would seem that the Club’s recent activity is a continuation of its long standing penchant for grabbing headlines.

Plantation Golf Club engaged JCM Farming in a 50/50 joint-venture to “grow and sell Mejdool date palms, with profits split” halfways, per the lawsuit. The women-led company alleges the club of souring the deal in an attempt to protect their tax status and the male-only membership of the club.

Legal Reader reports that not only did The Plantation Club “misrepresented the joint venture in tax filings”, it also sought to actively sabotage the business venture after learning of its threats to the much-coveted 501(c)7 federal tax status that exempts it for income tax.

The IRS grants 501(c)7 status to social clubs if they meet certain criteria. It must, according to the IRS, only “receive de minimis income from nontraditional sources”, which include joint ventures such as the Plantation Golf Club’s joint-venture with JCM Farming. The statute establishing this category of exempt organisations—social clubs—compels the IRS to limit it to 35% of gross receipts, and no more than 15% in total from non-members using club facilities.

We can here only read between the lines that when the club stopped watering the date trees, it was because they were threatened with loss of 501(c)7 status that protected income from members being assessed as taxable income.

But the allegations—that, according to the lawsuit, “comes from people inside the club”, per KESQ—that are even more damning to the Plantation Club stem from a laundry list of things any reasonable person, much less an attorney, would push a club not to engage in, from running a de-facto casino and gambling centre in-house to acting as broker-dealers for securities sold on premises and then “compensat[ing] its members for losses when these [sales] were later deemed fraudulent sales”. Not only was the club acting as a stock market and exchange, it also took on the role of bookkeeper and market maker, among other things.

I am no lawyer but I have previously published academically on jurisprudence and the common law and constitutional law. All of these other matters aside, the most cogent line of argument in Equity Ag Financial’s argument is that the club sabotaged a business venture it agreed to perform certain duties for the sake of protecting its membership and tax status.

What this means for Clubland

Proponents of single-sex clubs have argued that it’s a matter of members simply choosing who they want to associate with. A single-sex club is no different than a club that has an unspoken quota for attorneys, such as SoHo House, or a club that has a preference for members to be of a certain political preference, such as Washington’s National Democratic Club or Manhattan’s Women’s Republican Club.

Alexander Pacheco, founder of the male-only Viridian Club in Austin, told Clubland USA that his rebuttal to questions of his club’s single sex status usually involves pointing out that there’s a women’s only club within a three-mile radius.

It has yet to be determined whether younger generations of club members will be interested in these spaces and whether the scandals surrounding them and their evolutions will ensure their arrival in the next generation.

For those following, Judge Fernando Olguin has been assigned to the case and as of March 24, Plantation Club’s attorneys have yet to appear before the court. Clubland USA will be keeping all abreast of the developments here.

Please be sure to keep an eye out for our next issue on Tuesday, March 31.

“We’re going to Winnipeg!”

Those were the words of my friend, David DiMolfetta, a DC-based journalist pal of mine who accompanied me to Toronto for a visit to another friend, also named David.

What was in Winnipeg? Besides being Canadian David’s hometown and the butt of an awful inside joke, not much.

Our visit to Canada taught me a few things. First, Canadians have the right answers for more than public-private partnerships. They provided a new sense of hope for Gold Standard city clubs than this club curmudgeon thought possible.

And, I also learned that my absent-mindedness knows no limits as I forgot my laptop on the security conveyor belt rushing to a flight that was ultimately delayed by 45 minutes.

Please enjoy today’s dispatch issue—on Clubland’s 1 year anniversary. Please be sure to share with your friends and family.

Newbies at the National Club

By: Leonard A. Robinson

The adage that says, “A picture is worth a thousand words”, hits differently when you’ve forgotten to take the actual photo.

As a truly well-behaved Clubman, the natural placement for my phone is always away. Away from my fingers to accidentally hit record and away from objects that can be photographed.

This turned out to be a grave mistake at the National Club, especially as I raved about my experience to the host who responded by asking, “So, did you get a photo?”

Gobsmacked.

Arriving at the Bay Street clubhouse reminds one of Manhattan’s Downtown Association as both are hidden in plain sight along a bustling street filled with young workers in Patagonia and brown shoes carrying mystery bowls of lunchtime slop.

A gold plaque at the door commemorates the club’s legacy as the home for Canada First, the nationalist movement led by George Denison, Henry Morgan, Charles Mair, William Foster and Robert Grant Haliburton. Canada First’s temperament as a movement was that of British Protestantism which becomes evident throughout your time at the Club as much of the club’s appeal is the classic understated, almost quiet luxury of the building held sturdy by marble columns and over a century of history.

David DiMolfetta and I had lunch at the 1874 Bar and Grill followed by afternoon cigars on the rooftop patio where members built an outdoor gazebo to brave the chilly temperatures.

Pictures would’ve done great justice here.

David ordered a Poke bowl while I ordered a Korean-inspired fried chicken sandwich (yes, yes my cholesterol levels are fine). And yours truly also ordered a bone dry gin martini that was served in a comically girthy glass.

For a Friday afternoon, the club’s grill was surprisingly busy. There were only three empty tables near us in a room of perhaps 30 and staff were certainly pacing with a sense of urgency.

A waiter informed me that this was not abnormal for a Friday as many members chose to take their clients, colleagues and friends for a Friday lunch at the club. Music to this Club Cats ears!

After our meal, we grabbed our Coronas — which per Canadian law must have bland green wrapper covers — and headed to the gazebo where we were greeted by the other tobacco loving members.

It was among the most entertaining 90 minutes of our entire four-day visit as we talked hockey, cigars, the world of being journalists and writing a clubby Substack, our least favorite reciprocals and unsolicited marriage advice.

Members in the gazebo ranged from 2 years to two decades going strong. One remarked when asked, “Longer than my wife would like to admit”.

Asked what kept them remaining as members, the answer wasn’t the club’s proximity to their office, cigars or even the food. Each said that they had met a new friend and the Club had become an easy venue for maintaining and growing that friendship.

Although it sounds cliche, there’s a lesson for clubs and their members to learn.

At that moment, I glanced at David taking a sip from his martini. Here was a friend who joined me in a foreign country at a moment’s notice to meet a random friend of mine who shared his name — without asking many follow-ups.

And the Toronto Club gave me the opportunity to give the greatest gift that Clubland has to offer: warm hospitality.

Next week marks our one year anniversary of bringing Clubland USA to our loyal readers.

If you’ve been reading Clubland USA as closely as you’ve been following your club statements, you might know that we’re nearing a special milestone for our humble publication bringing you inside the world of clubs.

We’ve brought to our readers everything from Clubhouse Guide series, which covers the basics like the various types of clubs and club sports (and billiards for those less inclined), the rules of squash, club tables, what to wear, how to dress for summer, club finances, annual general meetings and club elections, (to Ishaan’s particular delight) what to do when joining your first club, reciprocal clubs and where not to whip out your phone.

Apart from the basics, we’ve covered clubs from Binghamton, New York, to Toledo, Ohio to Chicago and mourned the passing of Phoenix, Arizona’s only city club. From the new clubs like Austin, Texas’ Viridian Club to Gold Standard Clubs—those old bastions of legacy—we’ve brought it all to you, reliably, every Tuesday at 3PM.

Our squash coverage has been stellar. Apart from the professional squash tour, we’ve been longtime fans of Spencer Lovejoy and the National Squash League. We profiled NSL’s CEO, Spencer Lovejoy, at length, not long after we saw our first NSL game in a New York City skyscraper, and traced his journey from the squash courts at the New Haven Lawn Club to the professional squash tour. Mostafa Asal, long-time bad-boy of the pro squash tour, has been in our crosshairs for being a bad ol’ sport.

And, last, but not the least, we’ve been keeping abreast of disgraced pedophile “financier” Jeffery Epstein’s jaunts through clubland. We shall always remember that when it came to Gold Standard Clubs, he was always a guest, never a member; and should serve as a lesson to the newer “clubs” willing to have him.

After a year of writing Clubland USA, we have learned that there’s still not yet a cure for Club Fever. Thankfully, it’s only gotten worse.

You’re probably asking, what’s this club fever you speak of?

Our first issue included this gem by our own Leonard Robinson,

What’s Club Fever? It’s a disease that afflicts those special club regulars—who shall affectionately be known as club rats by this publication—when they’re strayed too far from the inside of a private club. It need not be their own. Much like smallpox, modernity seems to believe that such a thing has been eradicated. While the symptoms are relatively harmless, they can be difficult to understand if you’ve never experienced them.

Reports from Architectural Digest to the Wall Street Journal and even the American City Business Journals all detail a growth in interest about the world of clubs.

Real estate developers in Manhattan are learning how to make the drab amenity space in their high-rise buildings feel more like a “private club”. A private club led by a libertarian activist in New Hampshire could even possibly become a must-stop destination for potential presidential candidates next cycle.

The years that followed the COVID pandemic were, like the years that followed the influenza pandemic more than a century before it, were at first austere, then gilded, with every sort of romp and circumstance imaginable. No one liked being forced to hunker down and cover up, hoping that their next day may not be their last. You can see clearly where the embers first lit up.

We look forward to continuing bringing these stories to our loyal readers like you in the future.

Stay tuned next week for a special one-year anniversary issue.

Reading oral arguments at the Supreme Court in US v. Hemani, I’m struck with how precarious and particular the job of assessment is. Under consideration is a law that would prohibit “habitual” substance and alcohol users from procuring firearms in the Commonwealth of Virginia. But what does it really mean to assess a man as a “habitual drunkard”?

Justice Neil Gorsuch—like many of his colleagues on the court—thought that assessing who was a “habitual drunkard” was a tricky assessment to make. After all, don’t we have different capacities to consume? (A quick look around a late night soiree at a club in New York is sufficiently revealing).

First, Gorsuch trots out the American Temperance Society’s definition from “back in the day”, which “said that eight shots of whiskey a day only made you an occasional drunkard”.

And, then, comes the tour de grace:

“If you want to invoke the founding era, to be a habitual drunkard, you had to do double that, okay? John Adams took a tankard of hard cider with his breakfast every day. James Madison reportedly drank a pint of whiskey every day. Thomas Jefferson said he wasn’t much a user of alcohol, he only had three or four glasses of wine a night, okay?”

I would hardly assess most club cats at a club bar to hardly even be “occasional drunkards” in the definition trotted out by the American Temperance Society. But it’s a darned high bar, and I wouldn’t even want to begin trying it out for one.

Talking about assessments, though, there’s another kind in town—the one that drains your wallets, in service to your club.

‘Tis a good time to remember that the Founding Fathers separated from the Mad King George III only because they were assessed without representation. Go figure.

Easter Surprise: Word on Club Row is that clubs in Connecticut clubs have been assessing their members with some regularity.

While I’m fortunate to belong only to a club that doesn’t engage in assessments regularly, the grumpy, forlorn faces of members makes it both sad and peevish. Why wouldn’t you want to pay for the costs of helping maintain your clubhouse that you use and love?

On the other hand—clubs like Round Hill Club in Greenwich, CT, have been using assessments to build new facilities, with one trusted source revealing a five-figure assessment for expansion of facilities.

Assessments are expensive cash cows for clubs. Many country clubs with golf courses rely on semi-regular assessments to keep their grounds in order, which can be quite an expensive annual affair. Rebuilding bunkers on a golf course after a harsh, snowy winter can alone cost five-figures. Club buildings are aging—most of them are from the Gilded Age—and most of their maintenance is now coming due, causing even city clubs to feel the pinch of their capital budgets for improvements.

Club-Shooting Inspired by “Anti-Elitism”: The unfortunate shooting at Nashua, New Hampshire’s Sky Meadow Country Club last September, according to an affidavit made public by New Hampshire Public Radio, was inspired by more than a tinge of self-acknowledged anti-elitism. The affidavit reveals that the shooter, Hunter Nadeau, “decided to punish the wealthy … stating that he was tired of the “elites” taking all the money. He said that he settled on Sky Meadow as a location because he worked there about a year ago as a server and knew that you had to have money to have a membership there.”

Goading on Gramercy: At The Players, Max Weissenberg, author of the new page-turner The Gramercy Park Hotel: A New Icon, shared passages from the book along with a gripping detail of the various owners and guests who have graced the hotel, from Hunter S. Thompson to Cyndi Lauper. His uncle, Steven, was sure to provide ample corrections and family anecdotes after. One of the best parts of the presentation was hearing the family’s input and minor corrections to their proud son and nephew speaking about the family’s history that truly shaped Gramercy Park. Weissenberg joked with Clubland USA that the hotel’s new owners would allow for an unlimited supply of free drinks at the new hotel, which is set to reopen this fall. Our response: Unlimited supply of free drinks? You definitely wouldn’t find that at anywhere we consider a Gold Standard Club.

If there’s anything that we’ve learned about the various reporting of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s presence in elite social networks, one thing is clear: when it comes to Manhattan’s Gold Standard clubs, Epstein was always a guest, but never a member.

Any knowledgeable Club Cat should have noticed the silence from the crowd that believes that members of the Bohemian Club – who host famed summer retreats at Bohemian Grove – as there’s no evidence that Epstein visited. He notably had friends who did.

The only Club that seems to be a documented haunt is the CORE Club, which the Wall Street Journal reported had Epstein as a “founding member” who invested substantially in the club with multiple e-mails show Epstein inviting “girls” and business and social “connections” alike to visit him at CORE Club, long after he officially left its rosters.

Yes, you read that correctly: Epstein was that guy who still abused his club’s membership long after he left the rosters.

Nonetheless, a June 2015 e-mail indicates that CORE Club charged him a $7,600 annual membership fee, a steep discount on its usual fees which reach up to $18,000 annually. Emails show that he was a frequent presence known for lavishing up to thousands of dollars in one sitting.

One detail, however, remains obscured. The CORE Club was initially located on “East 55th St, between Park and Madison”, as the refrain goes in Epstein’s e-mail correspondence. Less than a mile away from Epstein’s 71st St townhouse, a stone’s throw away from Central Park, CORE was perhaps the only club on Manhattan’s Upper East Side — or anywhere in the city, for that matter — who would have him as more than a guest.

Epstein sought entry into the hallowed halls of other clubs, and oftentimes dodged the question of whether he belonged to The Explorers Club, right around the corner from his house. It turned out he could not and did not.

The only other club that Epstein claimed to be entangled with was the SoHo House in Miami, for which, like CORE, he was a “founding member”, according to an e-mail. No confirmation, however, could be found, although his correspondence includes multitudes from Guy Mitchell, Chief Development Office of SoHo House, and from those seeking entry to it. He even paid for Ghislaine Maxwell’s SoHo House bills, among others, writing to Celina Dubin that “you have a credit card to pay as much as you like for this year. do not be responsible. have fun”.

Here at Clubland USA, we see this as another vindication for the Gold Standard Club model: a club that is owned by the members, of the members, for the members; a club that shares in the life of other Gold Standard Clubs through reciprocity; and, finally, a club with a dress code.

None of the clubs that Epstein belonged to were Gold Standard Clubs; in fact, they were the very opposite, for-profit business entities that masqueraded as spaces to socialize with other, like-minded, newly-minted professionals, some of dubious provenance, others of dubious conduct, like Epstein.

At Gold Standard Clubs, Epstein would have struggled to become a member because of his unwillingness to have even the most basic details of his life explained to his peers. Plus, it’s safe to say that there’s enough WASPY Susans and skeptical Sams to never allow the results of that Google search to be ignored by the membership committee.

One can only imagine an application sent by a Jeffery E. Epstein to a Gold Standard Club, and a membership committee’s sitting curmudgeon takes it upon themselves to do even the most rudimentary research into the past of Jeffery E. Epstein, convicted pedophile. From 2009 that should have been enough to keep him away—and away they did. There is no profit motive, but the institutional motive of keeping a place alive, flourishing, and safe from the dangers of pedophilic frauds, the likes of which include Jeffery Epstein.

The only reason he belonged to CORE was because they were keen for investment, and despite his time at CORE significantly overlapping with his very public investigation and conviction over child sex crimes, no record exists of him being admonished or asked to resign by a club so singlehandedly obsessed with profit motives that its founders continued to not only entertain him and his “girls”, evidenced by a large tranche of e-mails, long after his child sex crimes conviction, but also sought advice on financial issues long after he left the club.

Gold Standard Clubs, by virtue of the nonexistence of the profit motive beyond general maintenance, by virtue of their longevity and enmeshment in networks older and deeper than themselves, by virtue of their standards and the high bar with which they hold themselves, cannot and would not surrender to the likes of pedophiles like Epstein.

This proves to be a tremendous risk for non-Gold Standard Clubs like CORE, who countless examples have shown fail this test time and time again.

Most of my friends know that I am wedded to my schedule. Six days a week, I am on the squash court, no matter what. Underlying this, however, is a sense of fair play and sportsmanship that belies all club sports. Club sports breed good sportsmanship, not the lack of it.

This week, I bring to you troubling news from the recently-concluded Windy City Open at the University Club of Chicago. Professional squash is now breeding a cohort of players who are severely wanting in sportsmanship, though, to be sure, there are bright spots—USA’s Timmy Brownell and UK’s Jonah Bryant among them. A forced injury to compel a break is a bridge too far for us to countenance.

The majority of our dispatches, like the poor sportsmanship on display at the Professional Squash Tour, reveal infamy, through Epstein and PPP fraud at the Harvard Club of Boston. The only bright spot there is New York’s Metropolitan Club, which is now sizeably endowed for the future. — IJ

Is it Worth the Win?

I’ve long held that club sports are summed up by winning and losing to the same person, time and time again, oftentimes for decades at a stretch. There’s a certain respect for fair play and for doing the right thing, even when it results in you losing something pivotal, whether it is bragging rights or your dignity.

The Professional Squash tour has had its fair share of run-ins with poor sportsmanship, in our opinion. A new breed of players, such as Mohamed Zakaria have taken after the self-titled Raging Bull, Mostafa Asal, currently world #1, blocking, faking injuries, and manipulating the rules of the game.

At the Windy City Open at the University Club of Chicago’s regal Cathedral Hall, Asal took manipulation of the rules to another extreme. After a tedious set of rallies with World #2, Kiwi Paul Coll, who is perhaps the most meticulous of the classically-trained players, Asal was wiped, and even the commentators knew it, remarking that Asal was perhaps too exhausted to continue to put up a fight.

Moments later, Asal dived into Coll, in what appeared to be a deliberate act of sabotage, resulting in a dangerous slide that sent both tumbling across the floor. The rules warrant a 15-minute break for injuries, but haven’t caught up with Asal’s antics, and after the quarter-hour-long break, Asal looked chippy and refreshed, going on to beat Coll in 83 minutes—quite a lengthy time—and 3 games in a best of 5.

In a post-match interview, Asal gloated, “I am really happy … I am really proud of this performance”. Proud of what, one may ask? Causing a deliberate injury to get time to rest in order to beat his opponent? Is the win worth it?

Metropolitan Infusions: The Metropolitan Club New York in New York City sold their air rights—the potential right to develop upwards in New York City—to their neighbours to build a “74-story, 764,698 square-foot mixed use tower”, for the princely sum of $40 million. Hard times may befall clubland, but the Metropolitan Club will remain sufficiently well-endowed for the trials and tribulations to come.

To PPP or Not: The Harvard Club of Boston paid $2.4 million in fines and compensation for a Paycheck Protection Program loan it took out on May 4, 2021, at the height of the COVID pandemic. Criteria for the forgiven loan explicitly prohibited private members clubs with restrictive membership criteria from receiving government pandemic loan relief. The whistleblower, Daniel Foster, received a ~$250k payout.

“Club” Controversy: The disgraced financier and convicted pedophile Jeffery Epstein was, according to the Wall Street Journal, deeply intertwined with the Core Club, a new “private” for-profit club. As one of 150 founding members, he paid significantly for the privilege, and used its facilities extensively. Initiation at the Core Club, with clubhouses in New York City and Milan, can be up to $100,000, with dues to match.

Thank you for reading this Dispatch issue. Our next issue will be in your inbox at 3PM on Tuesday, February 24, 2026.

Funny enough, I heard this at the Cosmos Club while smoking cigars with a self-deprecating trade association executive. He confided in me, almost to state secret level, that he was a Democrat who was becoming weary of the progressive wing of his own party.

How much does politics and your worldview matter when choosing a club?

To Alexander Pacheco, founder of the Viridian Club, it’s one of the most important factors that one can consider. After all, he argues, a compatible worldview is the number one factor of longevity in many relationships, ranging from friendships to romantic partnerships.

This week, Clubland USA brings you a Q&A with Pacheco about what he’s aiming to build with the downtown Austin-based club set to open its clubhouse in summer 2026.

Clubland USA: When you speak of the Golden Age of Fraternalism and Viridian being a part of a sort of new age of this, what do you mean?

Pacheco: Across the country, we have a major trust and national identity problem that’s not unseen before in American history. We had a similar effect after the Civil War and it was still worse than what we had today which inspired me to look to historical precedent.

From about 1870 to 1920, in a period known as the Golden Age of Fraternalism, our country rebuilt trust and a national identity despite having extremely high levels of foreign-born percentage of the population. At its peak during this period, 40% of adult males in the United States were members of at least one private fraternal societies.

It was during this period when most of the nation’s oldest clubs, such as the Union Club in New York and the Bohemian Club in San Francisco, were founded. This is where we got collegiate fraternities and sororities as well.

We’ve all seemed to have forgotten the reason that we have these institutions. People don’t make clubs just to say, “Here’s a circle, there’s exclusivity, we’re in, you’re out.” It’s not about that.

Viridian Club wants to bring that about the same spirit that led to the founding of many of these older clubs to our current generation. The result is a complete pivot from the current club landscape.

To read the entirety of this Q&A interview, please click here.

Thank you for your continued readership. Our next issue will be Tuesday, February 17.

During our first conversation, which spanned nearly two hours, Pacheco explained his vision for a new ecosystem of social clubs that were anchored by a shared appreciation of values — rather than hobbies and geography. It still remains as one of the most fascinating conversations that I’ve had since launching Clubland USA.

A former tech founder, Pacheco combines a disruptive spirit with a deep appreciation for history, moving fluidly between conversations about cryptocurrency, insights from Cicero and why traditionalism is the new counterculture.

His initial interest in the world of clubs was birthed from an interest in systems engineering and network science, particularly the work of Stanford’s Matthew O. Jackson who published The Human Network in 2019.

That same year, Pacheco launched 150, a social network startup built on Dunbar’s Number, which states that the brain has a limit of 150 meaningful relationships. The startup struggled to gain users, but Pacheco says that the research gained in the process has been an immense help in his latest venture.

A native of upstate New York, Pacheco relocated to Texas a decade ago spending seven years in Dallas before moving to Austin in 2022. He tells Clubland USA that Austin is ripe for a social club that fits the growing scene of heterodox writers, intellectuals, and comedians who have begun calling the city home after the Covid-19 pandemic — and that Viridian Club can fill the gap.

The Q&A has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Clubland USA: When you speak of the Golden Age of Fraternalism and Viridian being a part of a sort of new age of this, what do you mean?

Pacheco: Across the country, we have a major trust and national identity problem that’s not unseen before in American history. We had a similar effect after the Civil War and it was still worse than what we had today which inspired me to look to historical precedent.

From about 1870 to 1920, in a period known as the Golden Age of Fraternalism, our country rebuilt trust and a national identity despite having extremely high levels of foreign-born percentage of the population. At its peak during this period, 40% of adult males in the United States were members of at least one private fraternal societies.

It was during this period when most of the nation’s oldest clubs, such as the Union Club in New York and the Bohemian Club in San Francisco, were founded. This is where we got collegiate fraternities and sororities as well.

We’ve all seemed to have forgotten the reason that we have these institutions. People don’t make clubs just to say, “Here’s a circle, there’s exclusivity, we’re in, you’re out.” It’s not about that.

Viridian Club wants to bring that about the same spirit that led to the founding of many of these older clubs to our current generation.

Clubland USA: What’s that going to look like?

Pacheco: A mutual worldview is the number one predictor of long-term friendships or as the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. You’re aiming for spaces where people can comfortably meet and build relationships with people who share their worldviews.

You really have to balance two competing realities here: you need a big tent approach but also to remember that your club is not going to be able to welcome everyone and that’s okay. These are both important because people shape the place which shapes people. I tell folks that if there’s a spectrum from social club to fraternity, we’re definitely on the side of social club but closer to fraternal society than any other club in town.

To top it off, we’re a more conservative club and acknowledge that the right and the left build social networks differently. The right tends to centralize. A point in case was in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Fox News worked so well because it mimicked the innate social network topography of the right, which is centralization. In major cities today, people who are more conservative are searching for their centralized point that their brains are searching for that can’t be tapped in places that it used to, such as churches.

We also live our values as well. The Club, for instance, says to prospective members that within five years of joining, we expect for you to be married and ideally own property. We see these as goals for setting up good quality men. Manhood for us is about empowerment, leveling up and saying, “Hey, you’re actually not good enough where you are, but we believe you can be better, and here’s our standard. Reach it.”

Our universities used to be this. They used to not just be places of education, but finishing schools for young men and women. They created a certain type of person. A Harvard man used to mean something. A Yale man was something different. We are trying to create or make Viridians, much like collegiate fraternities have a program—”Here’s how we’re going to make you as a man.” We’re doing something similar.

Clubland USA: In 2025, what’s the motivation around building a club that only allows men for membership?

Pacheco: This isn’t a surprising question. People are like, “You’re doing a men-only club in today’s climate?” I think because I have so many friends that are on the edge of the Overton window, to us it’s very clear that the world’s moving this way.

We are for men and women with traditional values, and those, even the women with traditional values, prefer the men to lead in their relationship. When nearly half of men between the ages of 18 to 30 have not approached a woman in person, they need all the help they can get.

So how do we do this? We put men in a position in a very comfortable place amongst all their friends, a place that they’re familiar with, that they like, and it’s nice and well-designed. They get to go out to a woman in a position of high status and say, “I would love to invite you to join me to the club for an evening. It would make me very happy if I could be your escort for the evening.”

Traditional women love this. Again, we’re not for everybody. We’re for traditional men and traditional women. They want something like this. There’s nothing in society that offers it to them. We’re not offering this to everyone. We realize that a lot of other women and even men are like, “Yeah, no, we threw out the traditional roles.” We’re not like that. And if we truly believe in a liberal democracy, then allow us to be as society allows you to be.

We are making good quality men to be good husbands, to be good fathers. Well, we can’t do that in a space that is mixed gender. I can’t speak directly to men about how to be good men and speak to them in a way where you can speak more sternly to a man without it hurrying into an emotional thing or ego thing.

And usually, I also remind them that we’re within walking distance to the Austin Women’s Club and I’ve not heard any protests there.

Clubland USA: Clubs are often deemed to be elitist. You’re building a club full of conservative men aiming to be leaders, strong husbands, fathers. Are you building an elitist institution?

Pacheco: We’re elitists. The last thing about hippie-ism is that we’ve gotten rid of elitism. They’re like, “Everyone’s equal. It’s egalitarianism. If we just give you the same amount of nurturing, education, everyone can be just like you. There’s nothing special.”

A great book—it’s required reading for our members—is Leaving a Legacy by Johan Kurtz. He recently wrote an article on his Substack titled, “Raising children worthy of empires” — and that is very close to our values and how we see the world.

There is a value of keeping in a family business or a family line or a fraternal society where they bring you in and you can learn—like a master-apprentice program produces very different offspring than the university system.

Our members really connect with the analogy: it’s like an officer class in the military versus infantrymen. You can’t give the officers and the infantry the same instructions. If they did, the enemy army would just be like, “Okay, don’t play the game and you’ll win.”

That’s where we’re at. We’re trying to teach every single person—we’re suffering with overproduction of elites, simultaneously with elite underproduction. Everyone’s getting a degree and you’re a project manager at Meta—”Cool, you’re an elite. You’re in tier-one class, baby.” Some midwit IQs are lower—the average IQ in universities is 15 points past. But simultaneously, we’re not producing any quality elites.

Elites have always operated at a higher level of complexity, a higher level of consciousness of the world. The average person just wants to know what’s for dinner tonight and Johnny’s soccer game, and the masses need that. You can’t give them the duty and responsibility that you equally give to elites. They are raised and made completely differently.

Our members are striving in their 20s, 30s, and 40s to be future leaders in society. We know that the only way to be a high-quality leader—one that has a duty to serve the lower class as well—is to build themselves in a very unusual way, especially compared to the systems that are available.

Clubland USA: What are the ages of your membership?

Pacheco: This definitely is a young person’s space. It’s Gen Z millennials. 20s to 40s is what we’re all going to be targeting. Nearly two-thirds of our membership is below the age of 45 and we plan to keep it that way. You have to target young people. You have to build basically a private setting for the social scene to occur. You want to find your niche to describe who can’t come in without using negative adjectives. Ideally, the person leading it is modeling that lifestyle. People should want to be like them in that way.

Clubland USA: You’re in the final process of securing a space in downtown Austin. Tell us about the importance of a physical space.

Pacheco: People really bond to a space. I talked to a frat dad—one of those live-in resident advisors who’s been here in Austin for 10 years. He’s like, “You have to have these men bond not just only with each other, but with the organization itself, and if the organization is going to be an institution, it needs to have institutional things.”

Having a location or a place is a big part of that.

You can anchor your Club to a bar or restaurant, but their model won’t reward regulars in the same way that a private space does. The idea of a regular is not useful to them anymore, not profitable. So where do those people go? The regular type of people will seek more and more private institutions, private places. That’s what’s important about having a clubhouse.

Clubland USA: You’re a private owner of a club compared to a nonprofit or a membership collective of sorts. What advantages do you see to this and also any advice for others wanting to follow in your footsteps?

Pacheco: Private clubs have grown 66% in the past year in the United States and are projected to continue growing 11.2% year over year. I think this is going to grow so big that it’s a competing asset class especially considering that it’s a $27 billion industry today with potential to reach up to $270 billion. That’s a large enough industry so that investors within it can diversify.

I find it to be actually a really good business model. (Yes, Clubland USA raised eyebrows here too!)

Private clubs are generally valued by like 2-3X of their yearly revenue, like a sales multiple. A lot of them are incentivized to add all these high revenue services, which aren’t so high profit margins. Our plan is to do just drinks like cocktails, beer, and wine with light appetizers. At scale, we have over 70% profit margin.

This gives us an opportunity to revitalize a bunch of really niche use cases, beautiful buildings and repurpose them and beautify our cities. Approaching the age of autonomous vehicles approaches, less parking is going to be needed, meaning that we can gradually get rid of parking garages and parking lots.

But the greatest advantage to this, I think, would be how we have the chance to rebuild trust and a national identity in the country.

Clubland USA: Any closing words?

Pacheco: Yeah, for others following in this wake—there’s a couple things. One, the best thing to ask yourself if you’re considering starting a club, and this is something that many existing clubs struggle to answer today because they’ve gone away from it: Without using negative adjectives, describe who cannot come in.

We have more traditional values and we are pro-America and we’re kind of nativist in that way. If people have more of a liberal worldview of the world or more globalist than nationalist views, supporting the UN or the EU—we’re not about that. We think nation states take priority. People who are against traditional gender roles—yeah, you can do your thing, but we think this is a better operating model.

Tell people: find their niche, do it better than anyone else. Get their cultural icons in. Make it an exchange point, a Schelling point, because you don’t want to make it like, “Here’s our private space and we’re just going to be private and no one can come in.”

Especially for young people, they’re going to go to the spots that more and more of their friends can go to without it being too wide open into the public. The sweet spot is to make it more like a social club, less like a fraternal society.

Jeffrey Epstein seems to have been a member of no clubs in Manhattan, but a guest at more than his fair share.

A perusal of the Justice Department’s Epstein library for club connections show a series of calendar invites for events and the occasional meal at various clubs, but hardly any trace of a monthly bill or newsletter, application responses or the other correspondence found in the clubby inboxes.

Even the newer, flashy clubs weren’t of interest to Epstein. This didn’t stop him from claiming to be among the founders of SoHo House and advising CORE Club on its tax strategy.

Perhaps he received everything by mail, but considering what is in the inbox makes that very unlikely.

Although the Harmonie Club became the center of a defamation lawsuit involving Epstein, it’s safe to say that he was not a member of the club. The lawsuit against the New York Daily News involved a photograph of Jeffrey Lederer being published and captioned as the convicted sex offender.

His most frequent host in the Manhattan club scene was famed entertainment publicist Peggy Siegal, who has come under fire for her connection with Epstein. There’s even a 2010 email where Epstein’s assistant is giving him a list of events occurring for Fashion Week throughout New York to which he replies, “I only wanted what Peggy was hosting.”

Siegal, in an email exchange with Epstein, explained to Epstein what many people in Manhattan club world already know about the ladies-only Colony Club: these ladies might lunch, but they don’t marry down.

After describing her weekend plans, which included visiting Calvin Klein and his “twinkle” boyfriend, she mentions that she knew the husband of the then-president of the Colony Club and was visiting him over a weekend in January 2011.

“He is head of admissions of Maidstone Golf Club and wife is head of Colony Club,” she wrote. “Not Jewish!”

Siegal’s gratitude extended to ensuring that Epstein was invited to the Lotos Club for a celebratory lunch for Quincy Jones in January 2015 along with at least twice at the Metropolitan Club for a 2014 discussion and cocktails with actress and director Angelina Jolie and dinner after a screening of Trust and an event at the French Institute Alliance Francaise.

In November 2015, Epstein was scheduled to attend an after-party hosted by Siegal for the film Horror at The Players, but it remains unclear whether he did or not.

Epstein was invited to lunch at the Century Club Association, but did not respond to the email.

Although Epstein lived nearby The Explorers Club, it seems unlikely that he was a member especially since his emails contain no correspondence directly from the Club itself and he dodged the question when asked over emails.

Epstein did however attend Nathan Wolfe’s book release party held in 2011 and might have hosted filmmaker Woody Allen the following day.

At the invitation of Republican megadonor and talk radio host John Catsimatidis, Epstein was invited to a “friendraiser” for Catsimatidis’ mayoral run in 2013 at both the Union League Club and the New York Yacht Club. It remains uncertain if he attended either.

But, alas, there are clubby haunts that can say that Epstein was never amongst them as the Union, Princeton, Salmagundi, Downtown Association, the National Arts, Colony, Penn and Harmonie clubs are the clubs that Mr. Epstein never seemed to offer his presence.

Since Friday’s final document dump by the Justice Department, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s name has once again dominated news feeds, coffee catch-ups and club tables.

Epstein–– a twisted man whom I believe committed suicide ––was a world-class social climber and the trove of emails from scholars, philanthropists, business executives, Hollywood elites and others show a man with a bizarre obsession with proximity to eliteness. His association will cause enormous ripple effects and headaches for many, including a certain New Hampshire congressional candidate.

It should be no surprise to a reader of this publication that Epstein would have found himself (or attempted to find himself) in our midst. Where else would he find educated, curious, traditionally minded people (usually with deeper-than-average pockets) that would be susceptible to his scheme of bringing the best and brightest together for meals in his Fifth Avenue townhouse.

Clubland USA has perused the Epstein files to understand how he moved through private clubs — and how easily some of the doors seemed to open.

Always a Guest, Never a Member

Tracing Epstein’s Steps Across Manhattan Clubland

By:

Jeffrey Epstein seems to have been a member of no clubs in Manhattan, but a guest at quite a few.

A perusal of the Justice Department’s Epstein library for club connections show a series of calendar invites for events and the occasional meal at various clubs, but hardly any trace of a monthly bill or newsletter, application responses or the other correspondence found in the clubby inboxes.

Epstein was advising CORE Club on its tax strategy and allegedly told people in-person that he was a SoHo House founder.

Perhaps he received everything by mail, but considering what is in the inbox makes that very unlikely.

Although the Harmonie Club became the center of a defamation lawsuit involving Epstein, it’s safe to say that he was not a member of the club. The lawsuit against the New York Daily News involved a photograph of Jeffrey Lederer being published and captioned as the convicted sex offender.

His most frequent host in the Manhattan club scene was famed entertainment publicist Peggy Siegal, who has come under fire for her connection with Epstein. There’s even a 2010 email where Epstein’s assistant is giving him a list of events occurring for Fashion Week throughout New York to which he replies, “I only wanted what Peggy was hosting.”

Siegal, in an email exchange with Epstein, explained to Epstein what many people in Manhattan club world already know about the ladies-only Colony Club: these ladies might lunch, but they don’t marry down.

After describing her weekend plans, which included visiting Calvin Klein and his “twinkle” boyfriend, she mentions that she knew the husband of the then-president of the Colony Club and was visiting him over a weekend in January 2011.

“He is head of admissions of Maidstone Golf Club and wife is head of Colony Club,” she wrote. “Not Jewish!”

Siegal’s gratitude extended to ensuring that Epstein was invited to the Lotos Club for a celebratory lunch for Quincy Jones in January 2015 along with at least twice at the Metropolitan Club for a 2014 discussion and cocktails with actress and director Angelina Jolie and dinner after a screening of Trust and an event at the French Institute Alliance Francaise.

In November 2015, Epstein was scheduled to attend an after-party hosted by Siegal for the film Horror at The Players, but it remains unclear whether he did or not.

Epstein was invited to lunch at the Century Club Association, but did not respond to the email.

Although Epstein lived nearby The Explorers Club, it seems unlikely that he was a member especially since his emails contain no correspondence directly from the Club itself and he dodged the question when asked over emails.

Epstein did however attend Nathan Wolfe’s book release party held in 2011 and might have hosted filmmaker Woody Allen the following day.

At the invitation of Republican megadonor and talk radio host John Catsimatidis, Epstein was invited to a “friendraiser” for Catsimatidis’ mayoral run in 2013 at both the Union League Club and the New York Yacht Club. It remains uncertain if he attended either.

Union, Princeton, Salmagundi, Downtown Association, the National Arts, Colony, Penn and Harmonie clubs are the only clubs that seem to have been off of Mr. Epstein’s radar.

Mayhem at Vanderbilt Hall. Kiwi Paul Coll was decimated at the hands of squash whiz Mostafa Asal in three games, in what was a stunning defeat—stunning in magnitude—on the glass court at the Tournament of Champions in Grand Central’s Vanderbilt Hall on Thursday. The women’s final featured Olivia Weaver going up against Hania el Hammamy in a five-game tussle, where Weaver’s premature celebration in the fifth game whilst up 9-3 caused her to lose what could have been her first platinum title.

No weekends at the Union. After a scientific study of the Union Clubs, it has come to our attention that not one of them offers weekend service. Alas. What a downfall from the days where men lived there in their bachelor days.

Leonard and I spend a lot of time in New York. He lives there and I’m there often—well, at any rate, the State of New York, if not necessarily New York, NY.

In this week’s issue, Leonard ventured from Manhattan all the way upstate to Binghamton, New York. There, he introduces our readers to Bernard Marchuska, president of the storied Binghamton Club. Until we meet Bernie, like many Downstaters and (in my case, Connecticut residents!) had given little thought to anywhere north of a weekend in the Catskills or an idyllic Hudson Valley town.

Meanwhile, I became a fixture at Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall — only for the glass courts that were arranged for the Tournament of Champions. It’s the second time that Clubland USA has covered the tournament.

As we face the aftermath of a snowstorm, I truly hope that your Club has heat to bare through a storm that has come to seem so foreign in the Northeast in recent years.

Alla prossima! —IJ

Upstate Clubland with Binghamton Club’s Bernard Marchuska

Even the friendliest club president has secrets

Bernard Marchuska is a dear friend to Clubland USA –– not only as a frequent reader (and emailer), but also as a sounding board for whether these two club cats might be going too far.

Thankfully, he’s never said yes to that question. If anything, he’s always said and done the opposite: encouraged us to do even more to spread the good news of club life. And yet even the friendliest club presidents have secrets.

As president of the Binghamton Club in Binghamton, New York, Bernie’s love for his home Club shines through every conversation that we’ve ever had. These have ranged from how bowling — rather than squash — is the sport of choice at his Club, why young(er) people should give Clubland a chance and, moreover, how does someone probably survive an upstate New York winter.

The current temperature in Binghamton at press time is 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

It’s our privilege to bring a recent transcribed conversation with Bernie as our first Q&A of the new year.

What’s the first thing that someone would notice upon entering the Binghamton Club?

Our sense of community. We have a 101-year-old clubhouse that’s undergone some renovations in over the years, including a formal private dining room that was built somewhere around the late 1960s or early 1970s, and an elevator. We have a fitness facility complete with locker rooms that was built around the 2000s and we had a squash court. Nonetheless, our members know that we’ve got something special here and are eager to share with their friends and family along with reciprocal partners that visit.

What happened to the squash court?

It was removed due to not being regulation size. We do, however, have a six-lane bowling alley and offer competitive men’s, women’s and mixed bowling leagues that run from Spring to Fall. —LR

To continue reading more, please click here.

Squash, Sweat and Sort of Front Row Seats

At the 2026 Tournament of Champions, Clubland USA was front row (sorta)

As Clubland USA’s chief (and only) squash correspondent, there’s nowhere that I’d rather be than on the back wall seats of the Tournament of Champions. Most of the time, I was confined to the stands, but in between games, pacing around, the socialising always took front stage, both with players and spectators alike.

One of this publication’s first articles was our coverage of this esteemed tournament which is perhaps the greatest of the squash tournaments to ever be held in the United States. The Tournament of Champions brings the top 32 players on both the men’s and the women’s professional squash tours to a specially constructed glass court ensconced within Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall in New York City.

This year, I went back for more.

On Friday night, I had the pleasure of being seated alongside a convoy of squash fanatics from the Union League Club of New York.

Juan Camilo Vargas, #27, played Mohammed ElShorbagy, #10, in what was a display of terrific squash. Vargas pushed past his usual game and fought ElShorbagy until the very last, losing 11-9, 11-7, and 11-8—three terribly close games. Although this was Vargas’ first time on the glass court at ToC, playing against three-time ToC winner Elshorbagy, he’s likely to reprise his spot the next year and push through once again.

What was startling about Mohammed ElShorbagy’s game was how carefully and artfully he blocked Vargas, especially at crucial times. At the 9-9 point in the first game, Mohammed, who loomed over Vargas, hip checked Vargas in a manner that would not be susceptible to the cameras positioned behind him. It seems like blocking has been more or less accepted as part of the game in a way that would, in the pre-Asal years, get more ire from spectators.

Earlier that week, in the Round of 32, Timmy Brownell, #26, the highest ranked American male player on the tour, delivered a major upset, beating Mohammed ElShorbagy’s brother, Marwan, who is world #7. Brownell beat Marwan ElShorbagy in a gruelling match that lasted through four games, losing the first 9-11, and then proceeding to win 11-1, 13-11, 13-11, in a 61 minute battle of endurance and skill.—IJ

To continue reading more, please click here.

Thank you for reading. Our next issue will be in your inbox on Tuesday, February 3, at 3PM Eastern.

As Clubland USA’s chief (and only) squash correspondent, there’s nowhere that I’d rather be than on the back wall seats of the Tournament of Champions. Most of the time, I was confined to the stands, but in between games, pacing around, the socialising always took front stage, both with players and spectators alike.

One of this publication’s first articles was our coverage of this esteemed tournament which is perhaps the greatest of the squash tournaments to ever be held in the United States. The Tournament of Champions brings the top 32 players on both the men’s and the women’s professional squash tours to a specially constructed glass court ensconced within Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall in New York City.

This year, I went back for more.

On Friday night, I had the pleasure of being seated alongside a convoy of squash fanatics from the Union League Club of New York.

Video: Juan Camilo Vargas, black, playing Mohammed ElShorbagy, blue in the 2026 ToC Round of 32.

Juan Camilo Vargas, #27, played Mohammed ElShorbagy, #10, in what was a display of terrific squash. Vargas pushed past his usual game and fought ElShorbagy until the very last, losing 11-9, 11-7, and 11-8—three terribly close games. Although this was Vargas’ first time on the glass court at ToC, playing against three-time ToC winner Elshorbagy, he’s likely to reprise his spot the next year and push through once again.

What was startling about Mohammed ElShorbagy’s game was how carefully and artfully he blocked Vargas, especially at crucial times. At the 9-9 point in the first game, Mohammed, who loomed over Vargas, hip checked Vargas in a manner that would not be susceptible to the cameras positioned behind him. It seems like blocking has been more or less accepted as part of the game in a way that would, in the pre-Asal years, get more ire from spectators.

Earlier that week, in the Round of 32, Timmy Brownell, #26, the highest ranked American male player on the tour, delivered a major upset, beating Mohammed ElShorbagy’s brother, Marwan, who is world #7. Brownell beat Marwan ElShorbagy in a gruelling match that lasted through four games, losing the first 9-11, and then proceeding to win 11-1, 13-11, 13-11, in a 61 minute battle of endurance and skill.

The following day, Brownell played against #20 player Jonah Bryant in the Round of 16. While Brownell, dressed like a Christmas tree, stepped on the court as if David had demolished Goliath, recently triumphant, 20-year-old British whiz-kid Jonah Bryant wasn’t in such a celebratory mood, and sure didn’t give Brownell occasion for it. Brownell played a clean game, and seemed more focused, but lost to Bryant 6-11, 5-11, 5-11 in a short match.

Video: Timmy Brownell, green, playing Jonah Bryant, blue, in the 2026 ToC Round of 16.

Brownell, to his credit, exhibited great sportsmanship in a sport that has been having quibbles with it. At the last point in the match, the referee made a call to not offer a Let to Bryant on what appeared to the audience to be a questionable call. It would have likely been a stroke, but the referee awarded a “no let”, which would have let Brownell play the last point again, in an attempt at a comeback. Brownell instead used his limited player reviews to request a review, and although it was still a no-let, it was a great show of collegiality and sportsmanship in a game where both young and old players like Mohammed Zakaria and Mostafa Asal are increasingly pushing the limits of what may be deemed sportsmanlike, in good faith and spirit.

On the women’s side, I saw Olivia Weaver, top-ranked American women’s squash player, go up against British-born Canadian Hollie Naughton. While the first game was close—11-9—Weaver dominated the next two games, finishing the match in a paltry 34 minutes. While it was not so fun to watch because of Weaver’s domination over Naughton, Weaver has been playing an advanced and mature game that is calm and temperate and consistent, and Naughton, whose game appears marginally more mercurial, couldn’t really keep up.

The following day was also the sight of another bloodbath on court, with the up-and-coming #16 British squash player Jasmine Hutton going up against the higher ranked #9, Belgian player Tinnie Gilis. Hutton was expected to lose in three, but you know the thing about predictions: when they’re wrong, they’re horribly wrong. Gilis appeared on court, mentally and physically taxed, and I wouldn’t blame her: it was 5 degrees Fahrenheit outside, and the wind wasn’t particularly helpful.

Hutton overpowered Gilis with her agile movement and accurate shots. Gilis responded by trying to shorten rallies, which more often than not ended in inaccurate and imprecise shots, and Gilis seemed rather out of it. Though she put up a tough fight, this was to the women’s game the equivalent of the Brownell-Elshorbagy upset, and Hutton beat Gilis in 3 games: 11-9, 11-5, 11-4, in a short 31 minutes.

Gilis’ sister, Nele Coll-Gilis, lost, like Tinnie, in the round of 16 to Egyptian wonderchild Amina Orfi in three, ending both sisters’ run at the ToC.

We’re excited to see how the ToC shapes up as it progresses into the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals. Olivia Weaver is supposed to play Sivasangari Subramaniam, the Malaysian prodigy, in what is to be a close match with some brilliant squash on the glass court on 27 January at 7:30PM, followed closely by what is supposed to be another brilliant game—the Frenchman Victor Crouin going up against Kiwi Paul Coll, close enough to potentially create a tough fight for the lower-ranked Frenchman as he seeks to climb the rankings.

Before the finals, however, Spencer Lovejoy and the National Squash League will put on a wonderful exhibition on the same glass court at Vanderbilt Hall, which we will certainly be there for

.

This transcript has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What’s the first thing that someone would notice upon entering the Binghamton Club?

Our sense of community. We have a 101-year-old clubhouse that’s undergone some renovations in over the years, including a formal private dining room that was built somewhere around the late 1960s or early 1970s, and an elevator. We have a fitness facility complete with locker rooms that was built around the 2000s and we had a squash court. Nonetheless, our members know that we’ve got something special here and are eager to share with their friends and family along with reciprocal partners that visit.

What happened to the squash court?

It was removed due to not being regulation size. We do, however, have a six-lane bowling alley and offer competitive men’s, women’s and mixed bowling leagues that run from Spring to Fall.

If someone under the age of 40 entered the Binghamton Club, how would they be received?

I was 29 when I joined the Club, about 8-10 years younger than most of our members. We have a fair number of members around that age for a club of our size. Their attraction to this Club is twofold: They like to participate in our bowling league during the wintertime and our golf league in the summer that plays at an off-site course. A large part of what keeps our younger members engaged is the camaraderie that comes from both of these leagues.

We’ve found the biggest challenge with attracting younger members is for us to explain to them the value in face-to-face interactions with other members who could include a prospective client. Let’s face it, that’s where things get done and problems get solved, usually very quickly.

What do reciprocal relationships look like at the Binghamton Club?

Reciprocity is the best part of belonging to any Club, in my opinion. (Clubland USA concurs!) Our process is pretty straightforward: members approach us with a Club that they’d like to visit and we reach out and see if there’s a possibility of a reciprocity agreement. Our size and lack of lodging sometimes gets us a denial, but it doesn’t happen too often. We have a fairly lengthy reciprocal list for our size.

The best green flag for me with a prospective reciprocal club is when the Club’s president calls me to get a sense of who we are and what we’re trying to accomplish. Our red flags are mostly financial, such as a Club that can’t fulfill its monetary obligations, lacks the ability to take electronic payment or has a reputation of members not paying their bills when they’re away.

What’s something that you’re working to improve about the Binghamton Club?

An increase in member usage at the Club, especially because there’s several nights per week that I feel the Club is underutilized. There’s probably a few reasons, most notably that it’s a private club and while I’d like us to be on all of our members’ best places to go list, they don’t have to pick up the tab of their guests elsewhere.

Like other clubs, we run promotions, dinner specials and special events. Our bowling league meets on Wednesday, Thursday and Fridays so that certainly helps spur traffic but there can always be more.

Tell us about how you were introduced to the world of clubs.

While a student at Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania, I attended several events at country clubs like the Country Club of Scranton and Glenmaura National and initially thought to myself, “These places aren’t so bad”. Upon graduating in 1993, I decided to move to upstate New York and was invited as a guest to Binghamton Country Club (BCC) which was a true member’s club in every sense of the word and designed by the extremely talented A.W. Tillinghast. It was the only the beginning then after I was admitted as a member in 2000.

What was your first impression of BCC and how did that led you to the Binghamton Club?

What first struck me was the friendliness of the members and how it was truly a special place that also had better service, amenities, delicious food and beverages. It was just something special. In 2005, I joined the Binghamton Club but actually left in 2012, because like many people with kids, I wasn’t using the Club as much and BCC had a swimming pool.

And they didn’t hold that against you considering that you’re now the president.

They did not and, in fact, I returned in 2018 and by 2021, I was appointed to the Board of Governors and became president in 2022. My term is set to expire in 2027.

Let’s say money isn’t an object. What are you bringing to the Binghamton Club tomorrow?

A cigar smoking room similar to the one at the Union League of Philadelphia with a full bar and excellent ventilation. New York State smoking laws would make this virtually impossible to put into practice, but it would be a tremendous draw for membership. This is especiall

y seen for the two nights per year that we’re allowed to hold a cigar night by the county and our membership.

There are certainly members who stay away for a week after those events, but we have a member in the fire restoration business who gives us access to industrial air filtration equipment and deodorizers which makes the event possible.

Speaking of what sounds like a fun evening at the Club, would you want to share the story of your favorite night at the Club?

There are several, but as a gentleman, those would be better suited as a private conversation over a dry martini.

There is, however, a lot more to the art of the club than being clubbable. For once, clubs have long played host to art collections of note.

The Union League Club of Chicago, not to be left far behind, boasts “the second largest private art collection in the Midwest—second only to the Art Institute” of Chicago.

The University Club of Chicago, too, has an art collection that rivals that of most top-tier Chicago museums, all for the pleasure of its members.

I guess if you belong to Chicago Clubland, visiting a museum is quite easy, even repetitive. But, then, what about the new clubs?

SoHo House’s Art Collateral

We’ve long used SoHo house as a metonym for the new, privately owned clubs that pop up like potholes in clubland, but the art lover in me was somewhat envious of the marvellous collection that they had built up over the years.

ARTnet’s George Nelson reported recently that their over 10,000-piece art collection was worth anywhere between $42–355 million and has never seen a single disacquisition—almost close to the value of the entire debt of the once-embattled firm.

More interesting, however, is the method through which they acquired art. Harkening back to the days when SoHo House was the pinnacle of artsy achievement and recognition in London and later New York City, propelling it to fame, it often acquired pieces from artists by providing credits against membership dues and house charges.

SoHo House’s art director, Kate Bryan, revealed that artists oftentimes use the “barter process” to provide liquidity for their club bills:

“Some artists join the collection early in their careers and later become museum-level names. My job can feel surreal—sometimes I’ll get a text from an important artist saying, “I’m about to have a show at the Guggenheim; do you want to visit my studio?” Really, they’re saying, “I’d love some more credit to stay with you.” Soho House has become a key part of their infrastructure.”

You might wonder whether or not this has contributed to SoHo House’s financial troubles, but I suspect that this might not be the case. Bryan acquired a work by the artist Hilary Pecis for $6,000, only to find herself the recipient of a news article some time thence that established a new record for Pecis’ work: $350,000.

SoHo House could have also dug itself out of financial trouble with its art collection, and ARTnet reports that it is regularly valued by the auction house Bonham’s for insurance. Art, however, is the opposite of gold: fundamentally illiquid. I wouldn’t want to test the liquidity of those reserves—ever.

I, for one, hope that some of our favourite clubs can learn something from SoHo House’s acceptance of and fostering of relationships with great artists, not only ones who paint with dark, lustered backgrounds, featuring the common theme of club presidents.

Action in the Motor City: The Birmingham Athletic Club in Detroit, MI, hosted the 2026 edition of the Motor City Open, marking the first big American squash tournament of the year. The Peruvian whiz and first seed Diego Elias lost in the final to now-British Marwan ElShorbagy in three games, putting an end to the Peruvian’s steamrolling results.

Raise a Glass, New York: The 2026 Tournament of Champions, following closely on the heels of the Motor City Open, commences this week. Qualifying games for wild-card entries are to be played at the Yale Club today and tomorrow, and games for the tournament will be played at the Harvard Club of New York and the New York Athletic Club alongside the main glass court in Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Station.

Historic (Club)Houses: The Jonathan Club opens the doors to its clubhouse in Downtown Los Angeles to the public for two tours with the Los Angeles Conservancy, on January 25 and January 31. The clubhouse boasts, among other things, “hand-painted ceilings by a Vatican-trained artist, intricate woodwork created by early Hollywood set designers, a library originating from books donated by Henry Huntington”.

Thank you for reading. Our next issue will be available to read on Tuesday, January 27, at 3PM.

Upon starting Clubland USA, Ishaan Jajodia and I never envisioned writing this issue. Entrepreneurship is always filled with twists and turns, including our realization that new clubs will probably be a frequent topic for us.

We truly love our Gold Standard Clubs, but we believe that competition is a healthy component of any marketplace. After all, as Clubland’s Seth Thevoz has written, many of London’s oldest clubs, such as Boodles, actually began under private ownership before reverting to its current member-owned status.

If American trends evidently are just a rerun of a British episode from years prior, we’re entering a golden age of members club. Or as Alex Pacheco, the man behind Austin’s Crimson Club, says, “New Golden Age of Fraternalism”. Mr. Pacheo will be featured in this publication later this month.

Mr. Pacheo, during our interview, shared a fascinating explanation with me about the projected value of clubs as an asset class. (Cover your ears, Muffy, they’re using “finance terms” at the club table!) But, if his projections are correct, the question for young urbanites across this great land will no longer be where should we go tonight but rather where can we go tonight?

Now Ishaan and I aren’t too bullish on clubs as a private enterprise, but we’re very bullish on club life. And it’s with that in mind that we share advice for aspiring club-prenuers in this issue. —LR

Social Comes First

Yesterday evening, after a busy work day, I found myself on a chilly rooftop in Manhattan sans cigar and cocktail — unfortunately. Thankfully, the topic was so intriguing to me that I didn’t need much artificial stimulant.

You can safely imagine that it turned to the world of private clubs.

My friend — a Gen Z corporate dropout with a philosophy degree and entrepreneurial mindset — was bemoaning the lack of IRL experiences, primarily in the dating market. That, of course, led to us speaking of the great club renaissance that’s occurring right before our eyes.

Somewhere in between my sharing a personal ranking of my club’s reciprocity list, he interrupted and asked, “Leonard, what makes a really good club?”

My answer was simple: clubs that actually create social conditions where members can actually socialize with one another. —LR

To continue reading more, please click here.

Members are not Customers

Dear Club-Preneur,

I take great glee in reminding you that the infamous “socialite” who was a guest of New York high society’s who’s who (and of Uncle Sam, in orange tie), branded herself a club-preneur of sorts. Not a strong start to begin with. But Anna Delvey understood something that many of you do not, having spent your time pitching prospective investors and donors alike: your members are not your customers.

Imagine walking into a clothing boutique and being told off by the designer and the manager for being inappropriately attired or wanting something that is deemed unacceptable (even though it’s available across the street, legally). Or having fellow “customers” remind you of the rules of engagement and dress codes and appropriate and inappropriate topics of conversation.

What I am asking you to imagine, then, is a world where the following mantra applies in every possible situation: your members are not customers.

It is ridiculous to imagine that your members are your customers. If you treat them as such, they will leave, straight out the front door, and spread the word that you, parvenu club-preneur, ought to be a pariah. Did you nickel and dime them for a soda or pour a drink that was less than two ounces of spirit? Out. Out. Out. The ease with which one can become a social pariah as someone who runs an establishment is underestimated by most: you may run the place today, but, like Ward McAllister found out, you can be on the outs rather quickly. —IJ

To continue reading, please click here.

Thank you for reading Clubland USA. Our next issue will appear on Tuesday, January 20, with Dispatches from Clubland.

Dear Club-Preneur,

I take great glee in reminding you that the infamous “socialite” who was a guest of New York high society’s who’s who (and of Uncle Sam, in orange tie), branded herself a club-preneur of sorts. Not a strong start to begin with. But Anna Delvey understood something that many of you do not, having spent your time pitching prospective investors and donors alike: your members are not your customers.

Imagine walking into a clothing boutique and being told off by the designer and the manager for being inappropriately attired or wanting something that is deemed unacceptable (even though it’s available across the street, legally). Or having fellow “customers” remind you of the rules of engagement and dress codes and appropriate and inappropriate topics of conversation.

What I am asking you to imagine, then, is a world where the following mantra applies in every possible situation: your members are not customers.

It is ridiculous to imagine that your members are your customers. If you treat them as such, they will leave, straight out the front door, and spread the word that you, parvenu club-preneur, ought to be a pariah. Did you nickel and dime them for a soda or pour a drink that was less than two ounces of spirit? Out. Out. Out. The ease with which one can become a social pariah as someone who runs an establishment is underestimated by most: you may run the place today, but, like Ward McAllister found out, you can be on the outs rather quickly.

Your members will expect not to be nickel and dimed. They are paying for the privilege to be there. Most wise club managers dream of the day that their fixed costs are entirely offset by the dues that members bring in, reducing the pressure on food and beverage service to create much-needed revenue.

Members know that they are paying for the privilege of using the space, and denying them that—whether it is through overcrowding the bar or running a lackluster dinner service or being middling and mediocre—will result in mass departures and member revolts. Many gold-standard clubs survive these due to their venerable antiquity, or, at least, the perception thereof. You can’t save yourself from member revolts by hiding behind antiquity because you are the new act in town, so your only option is unrelenting excellence.

Customers can choose to come and go. Members, on the other hand, financially and socially tie themselves to their clubs. You must remember that the very hoary orations of this curmudgeon may hold some value, partly because the club chair is hallowed ground for yours truly. Members “belong” to establishments, to clubs, whilst customers merely shop there. Quite garish, if I might add, the whole latter part.

Don’t feel the need to acquire as many customers as possible. An undesirable customer may be avoided, but a frustrating member who sledgehammers his way into every conversation is unavoidable. Picking and choosing your members wisely will be imperative to the success of your establishment. Discretion and good judgement in this regard will help you immensely, and you must avoid the urge to find the wastrel descendant of a once-illustrious family to bolster the social appearance of your club (trust me, you’ll regret it). Once you find the glue of your social fabric—these tend to be a handful of members—do everything you can to keep them on your side.

There is a flip side to this mantra. The customer is always right, but members are not customers. Members are more than mere customers, which means you can also tell them no. Unreasonable requests, unbecoming conduct, and the like can be easily stamped out by a clear and simultaneously polite exercise of authority. You can tell members no in a way that you cannot tell your customers, but, like always, your virtue as a club-preneur lies in moderation and good judgement, not in money-grubbing.

Some of the hardest things you’ll ever do as a club-preneur will involve telling people “no”, especially some of your most important members. There will come a time when you must, and, in doing so, you must always do it behind closed doors. You have a position of temporary authority over them, and no one responds well to being embarrassed. The history of Clubland is full of instances where slighted members have branched off and founded illustrious clubs of their own. A member revolt is the first step to increased competition, and today, even if they won’t build another club, they’ll probably join a competitor and spite will propel them to advertise their vengeful departure and their warm reception elsewhere.

You must remain cordial to all your members. You cannot play favourites openly, even if you have favourites (ask any teacher!). Your customers won’t care if you play favourites—after all, who are your fellow customers to them—but your members will, and they will remember it. The aura of impartiality is what is needed, not impartiality itself, which only saints in their holiness and demons in their depravations can exercise.

I’ve gone on long enough. Remember the first rule of running a private club: your members are not your customers, in all its ways, shapes, and forms.

Yours, begrudgingly,

Ishaan