Three Cheers for Three Months
Nearly three months into Clubland USA, the best is yet to come
Clubland USA has been hitting inboxes for nearly three months. Take a deep sigh and realize the weight of that sentence.
For three months, three writers — Ishaan Jajodia, Ben Kahn, and yours truly — have been delivering the best of the week from the world of private clubs. Fortunately, we’ve had the pleasure of conversing about each issue with many of you either via email or in club bars across the country from Manhattan to Southern California.
It’s been a treat and the opportunity of a lifetime.
This week, our writers are taking a respite from their clubs and from Clubland USA. Ishaan Jajodia is delivering remarks at his alma mater, Dartmouth College; Ben Kahn is traveling with family and yours truly is recovering from a long Fourth of July weekend with friends (including Ishaan) celebrating America’s 249th birthday in Gettysburg.
As a result, this week’s sole contribution from the editorial team titled, Toasts to Clubland USA, will be available to all readers below. We truly hope you enjoy and look forward to you reading next week’s issue. - LR
Toasts to Clubland USA
By: Leonard A. Robinson
Every good reporter starts their follow-up from receiving a juicy tip with the three big questions: Who, What, Why? If you’re an exceptional reporter, you might ask how and if you’re overrun with press releases, you probably ask when so you can prioritize the day’s news.
This is the approach that I’ll take in giving “toasts” to the three months of Clubland USA.
Who are we?
We’re three people who enjoy club life for completely different reasons who all happen to have professional backgrounds in writing. Yours truly has been a working financial and business journalist, for years. Ishaan is our curmudgeon-in-chief who is also pursuing a Ph.D. at Yale University. Benjamin is a marketing executive and former journalist.
Upon meeting us, either individually or together, a common question that we’re often asked is, so how did you get the idea for this thing?
It starts with acknowledging a simple fact: no one is more of a club rat than Ishaan Jajodia. He’s such a club rat that, in fact, he is the person who introduced the expression to my vocabulary while hosting me for a visit at his club in New Haven. I was not completely new to the world of private clubs, but certainly not fully at home, either. At that moment, I vowed to never become a club rat.
That lasted for a year before I found the Manhattan club that seemed as if it was built for me. Off to the races, Ishaan and I who long collaborated on several projects began swapping club stories, reports of reciprocal visits, chatter about our club’s politics and such until one of us said: We should make a Substack that is essentially all of our conversations. Because why not?
After a quick phone call to Ben, who was my college roommate and colleague at the time, Clubland USA was born in a shared Google folder six weeks before the first issue.
What are we?
One of the first questions that often comes about when I describe Clubland USA to prospective readers or family who are still shocked that this Substack is going somewhere is, “So, how do you figure out which clubs to review?” We don’t “review” clubs as much as pull back the curtain a bit on club life.
This means sharing stories about unexpected arrivals into club life, such as Joseph Swartz’s journey to joining the Army and Navy Club, or providing informational guides to pillars of club life, such as different types of clubs, club sports, and even navigating club election season or tips for a good clubby summer with a bonus anecdote about a road trip from Manhattan to New Hampshire.
Sometimes, we shout into the void and write things that we wish could be said at our club’s board meetings (which we aren’t invited to). Ahem, this means to please stop with the online application forms and stop trying to take us from our Gold Standard roots in exchange for SoHo House lunacy.
Our chief squash correspondent will teach you everything that a good club rat should know about squash, including the most basic rules of the game.
We’re even working to bring the “clubbiest” (is this even a real word?) podcast to life with Chatter. Benjamin Kahn released our inaugural episode with Washington, D.C. based clothier (and potential Gold Standard club convert?) Anthony Bolognese. (Yes, we have a podcast but we’re still not influencers.)
And why?
The easy answer is because we love club life, but that would be rather cheesy.
Here’s a better one: a reader of Clubland USA once remarked, while seated for dinner inside a New York private club, that you couldn’t recount the history of America without understanding the history of private clubs.
It seems rather dramatic, but I find it to be true. Week after week, we discover some kernel of our country’s history that has taken place inside of these often-landmarked buildings with heavy-handed bartenders. And if we’re not discovering the past, we’re delicately overhearing a glimpse of the future.
It should be noted that this reader, weeks later, remarked that he found many of our conversations and experiences in each issue. This week will be no exception.
Three toasts for Clubland USA and to you, our readers, for giving us your precious attention and support.
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