Someone on a membership committee has decided you're worth inviting. The embossed card is sitting on your desk, the application link is in your inbox, and now you need to figure out whether this is a genuine opportunity or an expensive way to eat dinner in a room with a dress code. Private clubs are having a moment — or, more accurately, they never stopped having a moment, and a generation of founders and creative professionals just noticed.
The honest answer about whether a membership is worth it depends entirely on what you need. A global network of workspaces and pools? A dining room where you can close deals without being overheard? A living room away from home where the wine list is serious and the crowd is interesting? These are different products at wildly different price points. Here's what you're actually buying at six of the most talked-about clubs in New York and London.
The Global Network: Soho House
Annual dues run $3,600 to $4,500 depending on your membership tier, with no initiation fee. The "Every House" membership gets you into 40-plus locations worldwide, from the original Greek Street townhouse in London to outposts in Mumbai, Bangkok, and Tel Aviv. The model is straightforward: co-working space, restaurants, bars, screening rooms, and — at many locations — rooftop pools that are genuinely the main attraction.
Soho House built its reputation on the creative industries. Original membership in the late 1990s and early 2000s skewed heavily toward film, media, advertising, and fashion. The brand still leans on that identity, but the reality in 2025 is more varied. You'll sit next to startup founders, consultants, and people who work in finance but describe themselves as "investors in the creative space." The application still asks what you do, and the vetting process is real, but it's not what it was.
The pool rooftops — Shoreditch House in London, Soho House West Hollywood, the Ludlow in New York — are the real product. On a summer weekend, they deliver something no restaurant or hotel can replicate: a private outdoor scene with a vetted crowd, good drinks, and no reservation drama. The co-working spaces are functional if unremarkable. The restaurants range from solid to forgettable.
The original Soho location on Greek Street is still the best room in the network. It has the patina, the proportions, and the crowd that made the brand. Some of the newer outposts — particularly in second-tier cities — feel more like hotel lobbies with a membership gate than genuine clubs.
If you travel frequently and want a reliable place to work, eat, and meet people in multiple cities, the math works. If you're joining for a single location, compare what you'd spend on the membership versus just dining out at restaurants you actually want to visit.
The Power Rooms: Core Club and Zero Bond
The Core Club, NYC
Initiation fee of $50,000 plus $18,000 per year. This is a different category entirely. The Core Club on East 55th Street operates as a private club for people who run things — finance executives, real estate developers, tech CEOs, and the lawyers and advisors who serve them. The building is a full-service operation: restaurant, bar, fitness center, spa, private meeting rooms, and an art collection rivaling small museums.
The restaurant is run by alumni of Eleven Madison Park, and it performs at that level. The dining room is where the real value lives. Members use it as a second office, taking multiple meals a week there and treating it as neutral ground for business conversations that would feel transactional in a regular restaurant.
Honest assessment: the $50,000 initiation is a filter, and it works as intended. The room is never too crowded, and the introductions that happen organically at the bar or over lunch can be genuinely consequential. But this only makes sense if you'll use the dining room at least twice a week and actually want to meet the other members. If you're paying $68,000 in your first year for a place to eat alone, you've made a very expensive mistake.
Zero Bond, NYC
Annual dues of $3,500 plus a $2,500 initiation fee. Scott Sartiano's club in a converted Chinatown warehouse opened in 2020 and immediately attracted the hospitality-industry and media crowd. The space is large and well-designed — exposed brick, moody lighting, a layout that creates distinct zones for dining, drinking, and lounging. The cocktail program is strong, and the dinner menu is reliable without trying to be a destination restaurant.
Zero Bond is still finding its identity, which is both a risk and an opportunity. The membership skews younger than The Core Club, the energy on weekend nights is higher, and the Chinatown location gives it a distinctive character that separates it from the midtown and Meatpacking competition. The crowd tilts toward fashion, nightlife, media, and the kinds of founders who are more comfortable at a Drake concert than a board meeting.
The honest take: at $6,000 for your first year, Zero Bond is priced accessibly enough that the downside is limited. You'll get a good dinner spot with no reservation hassle and a late-night bar where the crowd is interesting. Whether it develops into something with the staying power of older clubs remains to be seen.
The London Establishments: Annabel's and The Arts Club
Annabel's, Mayfair
Annual dues of £3,500 plus a £1,750 initiation fee. Annabel's has been the grandest private club in London since 1963, and the 2018 redesign by Martin Brudnizki turned it into something almost absurdly beautiful. Three floors in a Georgian townhouse on Berkeley Square: the ground floor restaurant, the first-floor cocktail bar and lounge, and the basement nightclub. Every surface is decorated — hand-painted wallpaper, floral installations, jewel-toned velvet — and somehow it avoids feeling overwrought.
The restaurant is genuinely excellent. The menu runs through modern European and Asian dishes, and the kitchen executes at a level that would earn serious attention if it were a standalone restaurant. Service is polished without being stiff. On a weeknight, dinner at Annabel's is one of the best meals in Mayfair — and that's a neighborhood with no shortage of competition.
The nightclub is another matter. Friday and Saturday nights draw a younger, louder crowd, and the basement becomes a proper nightclub with all that entails: difficulty getting a table, volume that precludes conversation, and a scene bearing little resemblance to the civilized dining room above. If you're joining for dinner and cocktails on weeknights, Annabel's delivers. If you're joining for the weekend nightclub, you might be better served by simply going to a nightclub.
The Arts Club, Mayfair
Annual dues of £2,250 plus a £1,000 initiation fee. Founded in 1863, The Arts Club sits on Dover Street in a quieter register than Annabel's. The building houses a strong permanent art collection, a well-regarded restaurant, several bars, and private event spaces. The crowd skews older and more established — gallerists, collectors, senior publishing figures, and the kind of people who have been members for decades.
This is the most civilized club on this list. The restaurant serves modern British food at a high level, the wine list is deep, and the atmosphere on a weekday evening feels like dining in someone's very well-appointed home. There's no nightclub, no scene, and no particular interest in being photographed. If what you want from a private club is a quiet, well-run place to eat and drink with intelligent company, The Arts Club might be the best answer in London.
The Creative Choice: Norwood Club, NYC
Annual dues of $2,400 with no initiation fee. The Norwood Club occupies a Victorian townhouse on West 14th Street and caps its membership at approximately 1,000 people. The focus is explicitly on the arts: writers, filmmakers, visual artists, musicians, and the producers and editors who work alongside them. The building has a drawing room, a library, a dining room, a garden, and a screening room, and the scale is deliberately intimate.
At $2,400 per year — $200 per month — this represents the strongest value proposition on this list, assuming you're in the creative industries and will actually use it. The dining room is not competing with Michelin-starred restaurants, but the food is good and the prices are reasonable by Manhattan standards. What you're really paying for is the room: a townhouse where you can write, take meetings, host a small dinner, or watch a film with people who do similar work.
The best private club is the one where you'd want to have dinner with a randomly selected member. If the answer to that question is yes, the annual fee is almost certainly worth it. If you're joining for the logo on your credit card statement, save your money.
The Norwood's limitation is geographic — it's one building in one city, with no global network and no reciprocal arrangements that meaningfully compare to Soho House's footprint. But for New York-based creative professionals, it does something none of the larger clubs attempt: it feels like a genuine community rather than a hospitality product.
What to Ask Before You Join
Before signing any membership agreement, get clear answers on specifics that the marketing materials tend to gloss over. Guest policy matters more than you'd think — some clubs limit you to a set number of guest visits per month, others charge guest fees, and a few restrict how often you can bring the same person. If you're planning to use the club for business entertaining, this is a dealbreaker-level detail.
Ask about cancellation terms. Many clubs require written notice 60 to 90 days before your renewal date, and some charge an early termination fee or withhold your initiation deposit. Understand whether your initiation fee is refundable, partially refundable, or gone entirely. Ask about reciprocal clubs in other cities — Soho House handles this through its global network, but traditional clubs often have formal reciprocal arrangements with clubs in other markets.
Dining reservation difficulty is the quiet frustration of many memberships. A club restaurant fully booked every Friday and Saturday at 8pm is not meaningfully different from a popular public restaurant — you're paying for access you can't reliably use. Ask members, not staff, how far in advance they book dinner on weekends. Finally, understand the dress code and how strictly it's enforced. London clubs generally hold a harder line than New York clubs, but standards vary widely even within the same city.
The right membership can reshape your social and professional life in a city. The wrong one is just a recurring charge on your credit card. Do the math honestly: how many times per month will you actually walk through the door? If the answer is less than four, you're probably better off spending that money at restaurants and bars you already love.
