Back in the club
Berenjak (Dumbo)
CLUBS • First Person
As I considered the delicious black chickpea hummus in front of me — its texture and consistency not unlike whipped chicken liver mousse — and an accompanying clay-baked flatbread, I asked myself: Am I really eating this well at a Soho House?
If we’re being exact, I was at Dumbo House, the club’s Brooklyn outpost where London’s Berenjak kicked off a full restaurant pop-up last week. Known for elevated Persian cooking, the restaurant has brought a sizable portion of its London menu to NYC (the famed goat shoulder has not yet made the trip). Over a leisurely lunch last week, three of us tried a variety of dips to start, including that hummus and a yogurt with Persian cucumber, followed by succulent kebabs (the BBQ prawns were a particular hit) and an eggplant stew with split yellow peas, dried lime, and tomato that was as good as anything I’ve eaten anywhere recently. At Dumbo House!
The last time FOUND checked in on the state of private club dining in New York City about a year ago, I lamented the sameness of the Cecconi’s now dotting the city (and the world), but also took note of the new class of restaurant-centric members-only clubs opening their doors, like ZZ’s Club, which — along with its sister Carbone Privato — turns a year old next month. That trend continues this fall with September’s opening of Flyfish Club on the Lower East Side and this week’s debut of Casa Tua, a Miami clubstaurant imported to the just-opened Surrey Hotel on the Upper East Side.
Everyone’s goal, of course, is to catch lightning in a bottle like Scott Sartiano did when he opened Zero Bond in 2020. The trick: Collect the right mix of members (who meet your standards for cool), surround them with good service offerings, and frame them in a vibey space where people want to hang out (and be seen) again and again.
At restaurant-forward clubs, members will have to want to go back for the food, too. Soho House, for all of its previous dining deficiencies, was always more club than restaurant. An early visit I paid to Flyfish Club (definitely more restaurant than club, with a subterranean bar and omakase counter) found fare like an impressive seafood tower (three levels, $110 per), and a boisterous crowd, but in a city with infinite dining options, a twice-a-week habit here — or at any club — could feel limiting.
Pricing for most of these clubs seems to be settling in the $2500-$5000/annual range that Soho House and Zero Bond roughly charge. Flyfish, which once offered membership through an NFT sale, now transacts strictly in fiat with a $3500/annual price (plus $1500 initiation fee for non-NFT members), and Casal Tua has set a $4300/annual price (plus $1600 initiation) at its new digs on the Upper East Side (though like nearby private club Casa Cruz, Casa Tua also has booking options for non-members).
In practice, however, private club fees can sometimes be negotiated. A FOUND operative recently spotted a $1000/annual membership to Flyfish on the (members only!) dining reservations app Dorsia. [Ed note: Flyfish followed up to say the offer is for a $1000 initiation fee, with annual dues remaining at $3500.] And anecdotal reports from NYC chat groups is that some private clubs, like Tribeca’s Nexus Club, are offering to waive initiation fees altogether as the local private club market stretches towards saturation. In any case, it can’t hurt to ask.
Back at Dumbo House, I asked my server how long Berenjak planned to stay in residence. “Indefinitely,” he told me. I could get used to this. –Lockhart Steele
→ Berenjak (Dumbo) • 55 Water St • Soho House members can reserve on the app.