Reciprocal Clubs: Friend or Foe
Or Moocher?
The convenient feature of private club membership lies in reciprocal clubs, or clubs that one’s membership grants them access to. A friend, not yet a member of Clubland, once remarked that he’s unsure if Ishaan or I visit cities but rather simply step from airport to club to hotel—if they’re not the same—and back to our respective locales, New York and Connecticut.
While the jury remains out to lunch on this assessment, it is worth noting that many of Clubland USA’s subscribers do come from our adventures to reciprocal clubs. Whether it’s Indianapolis’ Columbia Club, the Charlotte City Club, or the Yale Club of New York City, we are forever indebted to our friends who count on our perspectives on Clubland.
Yours truly asks the question that many in Clubland have asked about certain reciprocal clubs: Are we even friends?
Ishaan Jajodia brings this week’s Dispatches from Clubland.—LR
“Are we even friends?”
Reciprocity is a shibboleth of gold standard clubs.
Why read Clubland USA alone when you can refer a friend to the club?
An Explorer Walks Into a Bar
Discovery Channel’s Tales from the Explorers Club (2022) exposed the world, outside of Clubland, to the Explorers Club and its history, vast archives, and contributions to countless fields of scientific exploration.
After glancing at a few episodes, I couldn’t help but notice that some of the Club’s greatest attributes didn’t seem to make the cut. Chris, the Club’s bartender is among Clubland’s finest, and is the maestro for the Club’s Friday Frolic, which is best described as an assortment of the most fascinating adventurers that you’ll ever meet swapping stories over cocktails on Friday evenings between 6pm and 9pm.
At a recent frolic, my eyes glanced behind Chris to notice a bottle of Johnnie Walker Scotch, a personal favorite, with “Explorers Club Collection” in gold letters atop a green bottle.
“Chris, what is that?”, I asked.
“It was discovered by a member who just got back from Malaysia,” a member interjected. “You do know the story, right?” — LR
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Are we even friends?
Bringing the reciprocity back to reciprocal clubs
The late British writer Anthony Lejeune only contributed a single piece to Manhattan Institute’s City Journal titled, “A Tour of New York Clubland”. It was in the Journal’s Winter 1992 issue within shivering distance of the December ‘92 ‘nor easter and a year before Manhattan Institute’s prominent student, Rudy Giuliani, ascended to the mayor’s office.
Reading Lejeune, however, provides no glimpses into this. Lejeune’s Manhattan, he says, is not that of the Empire State building or plopping a seat aboard the gaudy bright red buses zipping through the tourist-packed streets, but rather inside the familiar comfort of American clubs.
“It’s comforting, however, to have bolt holes in New York where an Englishman can feel more at home,” Lejeune writes. “The gentlemen’s clubs of Manhattan, with which the clubs of Pall Mall and St. James’s Street mostly have reciprocal arrangements, offer just such friendly comfort.”
Domestically, clubs often offer the sort of refuge that one can truly bask in: cocktails with heavy pours, riveting conversations with fascinating locals, athletic facilities with members who inflate their abilities without judgement, perhaps a seasonally curated menu (if the club prioritizes food and beverage), and if you’re lucky, a cigar room. (The fact that there seems to be less than 10 left in United States clubs is for another article.)
That’s the ideal, of course. The reality is that many clubs seem to have forgotten that clubs are meant to offer “friendly comfort” to their reciprocal clubs rather than seeing them as a money-making enterprise.
As has been previously written, my club—like many city clubs across the United States—happens to be closed for the month of August. Our club has been granted a few additional reciprocal clubs in New York to satisfy the urge for a club to call home for the remaining four weeks which has provided me with a glimpse of worrying trends about reciprocity in club life. —LR
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Smoke Rings and Stiff Upper Lips
Allow me to paint a picture of the Cosmos Club, which was founded in 1878 as a gentleman’s club for those interested in the sciences: though the exterior of the building is somewhat unassuming by D.C. standards, Maria Theresa would find herself right at home at the Cosmos. Think marble pillars and palatial cornices. The interior is truly a sight to behold, complete with ceiling murals, ornamental plaster and parquet flooring.
Despite dressing the part—blue windowpane suit, a complementary pocket square and cognac-colored plain Oxfords—I was decidedly out of my comfort zone.
Getting in the comfort zone would come soon enough when I was planted firmly in a cushioned seat beside the Tacca Fountain with a cigar between my fingers, puffing smoke in the dwindling light of a cool September evening—happy as a clam. That is, a clam with a cigar.
As one would expect, my presence at the Cosmos Club was a social matter. Leonard, who was a guest at the Cosmos on a visit from Manhattan, had extended the club’s hospitality to several of his friends in the area, including a journalist who is a member of the National Press Club. —BK
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Dispatches from Clubland
Club Lobby moves in with Club Managers. The National Club Association, the premier lobbying group for private clubs around the United States, will move headquarters on September 1 to Alexandria, VA, into the headquarters of the Club Managers Association of America. While the National Club Association insists on its independence, at Clubland USA we’re happy to see the two largest club-related organisations collaborate more closely at a time when gold-standard clubs are under siege from private equity-owned, for-profit “club” dupes.
Whack-a-Mole. Talking of privately owned, for-profit clubs, Clubland USA has been apprised of two moles making an appearance in Clubland. Thank goodness they’re not on Club Row, else I’d be livid. A shuttered Albany, NY restaurant is to reopen as a private “club”—or, as the New York Post aptly called it, “an exclusive politician nightclub”. Some ways away from Albany, in Atlanta, GA, The Gathering Spot, an ominous-sounding “club”, touted its 541% growth from 2016–24. We hate clubs that nickel and dime, and the very best clubs struggle to stay alive because they are always teetering on the edge of insolvency due to their largesse with members. Time to go WHACK accurately and precisely.
Washed Clean. The oldest dining club in Palm Beach, FL, Club Collette, was the victim of a “cheque washing” scam. The club’s intended recipient, an ornamental iron works firm, was duped of funds by an enterprising fraudster who was arrested the prior year on similar charges. —IJ