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Celebrating Grill Room Good Times
You can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can judge a club by its Grill Room. Or whatever the space where members congregate with one another for a simple meal, a hearty laugh and good company is called.
This space will be the incubator to some of the best moments in one’s club journey. It’ll be where you heard your favorite go-to cocktail party story first, where you met the person who’ll teach you how to play squash or where you’re introduced to the host for a club not on your reciprocal list. (I’ll be in Gouldsboro, Maine sometime this summer if anyone has suggestions!)
In this week’s Clubland USA issue, we’re celebrating good times in the Club’s Grill Room. Our inaugural editorial is a call to action for clubs across Clubland to bring the billiards tables back to the clubhouse followed by some practical advice by Benjamin Kahn on hiring the next club bartender.
Yours truly writes about the most underappreciated real estate in Clubland: a seat at the Club Table and brings you this week’s Dispatches from Clubland.
Please be sure to forward this Clubland USA issue, brought to subscribers by Double Dot Squash, with everyone who will love it. You’ll be our favourites if they subscribe here, or by using your unique referral link below.—LR
Shaken, Not Heard
Club bartenders wear many hats: alchemist, referee, sounding board and a friendly ear to listen to your woes, both club adjacent or otherwise. Most importantly, the Club bartender is a diplomat. He holds the most visible role in Clubland and, in many ways, is the face of the club. If the club is open, he is there attending to the throngs of thirsty club rats.
It’s for this reason that the Club bartender is perhaps the most consequential hire that the Club will make.
To continue reading, please click here
For the Love of Billiards
By: Ishaan Jajodia, Leonard Robinson, Benjamin Kahn
Clubland USA’s first editorial calls upon clubs to return billiards tables to their clubhouses—with a sense of urgency. We believe this to be the first step to clubs fulfilling their need for greater social cohesion and bonding and eliminating unnecessary stuffiness.
To continue reading this free article, please click here.
Clubland’s Best Real Estate is Disappearing
By: Leonard Robinson
Club bartenders wear many hats: alchemist, referee, sounding board and a friendly ear to listen to your woes, both club adjacent or otherwise. Most importantly, the Club bartender is a diplomat. He holds the most visible role in Clubland and, in many ways, is the face of the club. If the club is open, he is there attending to the throngs of thirsty club rats.
It’s for this reason that the Club bartender is perhaps the most consequential hire that the Club will make.
To continue reading this free article, please click here.
Dispatches from Clubland
Words Matter. One of the country’s oldest historically Black yacht clubs has been saved by last-minute budget language passed by the Maryland General Assembly, as initially reported by the Baltimore Banner.
Tough Times in Toledo. The Toledo Club has seen a substantial membership decline—to the tune of more than 30%—and is currently relying on a line of credit to pay its bills. The club’s interim manager says that saving the club is important because it’s one of the last institutions intimately connected to Toledo’s history.
Another fake club makes the WSJ. We here at Clubland USA proudly say that the operators of Boston’s luxury brothel, much like SoHo House, are not operating a real “club”, despite the Wall Street Journal’s reporting. Brothels aren’t real clubs because, for starters, they’re against the law, lack (known) reciprocal relationships and (probably) don’t have club pours at the bar.
Club rats are good for the economy. Be sure to share that when someone asks, “What do you get out of your membership?” You can rightfully say that it’s an act of public service. After all, private clubs employ more than 500,000 people annually and generate over $30 billion in revenue in 2023 alone, according to a landmark study from the National Club Association in conjunction with Club Benchmarking and the Club Management Association of America.
Thank you for reading Clubland USA. Our next issue will be Tuesday, April 29, at 3pm.