Social clubs for the wealthy don't look like what they used to. Members at NYC's newest cook their own food and bring their own liquor.
Brittany Chang
- Maxwell Social is New York City's latest social club with a spin: You have to cook your own food.
- The two-floor Tribeca club has a kitchen and lockers for members to store their bottles of liquor.
New York City newcomer Maxwell Social isn't a regular social club. It's a cool social club — where members are supposed to cook their own meals and provide their own liquor.
Social clubs have gained an infamous reputation among both the general public and the social elite. From New York City Mayor Eric Adams visiting the private Zero Bond social club to TikToks poking fun of Soho House, people love — either going to or making fun of — these exclusive clubs.
But Maxwell Social, the newest edition to the long list of New York City social clubs, is trying to buck this reputation with its own spin. Here, members can cook their own food and pour their own drinks.
"I don't think there's any real purpose behind most existing social clubs right now," David Litwak, entrepreneur and Maxwell's co-founder, told Insider.
Maxwell Social isn't just interested in becoming a "third place." It wants to become its members' second home (hence the kitchen), a place where they can host potluck dinner parties, make their own drinks, and hang out with their friends.
As the company says on its website, the space is both a "basement man cave" and a "she shack."
The club — named after Elsa Maxwell, a gossip columnist and socialite who died in 1963 — has furnishings reminiscent of living rooms, libraries, and sunrooms. Yet its crème de la crème isn't the comfortable couches — it's the large kitchen.
But unlike your friend's living room and kitchen, access to the Tribeca clubhouse is hidden behind the metaphorical gates of a membership fee.
It wouldn't be a New York City social club without a fee, of course.
Members pay a $250 monthly fee plus a one-time buy-in at either $2,500, $7,000, or $12,000.
The lowest price is the "community tier," Litwak said, an opportunity to keep the club diverse with different genders, professions, and races.
Litwak couldn't discuss the details of these different tiers.
But he did say the lowest tier comes with a shared liquor locker while the upper two don't have to share theirs. After all, it is a bring-your-own-bottle space.
But you can't just pay your way in. There's an application process as well.
"We're looking for serious people who don't take themselves seriously," Litwak said, a distant callback to dating app prompts.
You'll need "a degree of warmth, curiosity, and irreverence" to join.
And they've already turned away plenty of applicants, they say.
Centering a social club around a kitchen may seem like an odd decision compared to the other social clubs available in New York.
After all, if you're paying at least $5,500 your first year, wouldn't you want a waitstaff to provide you with your food?
But if you look at the company's history, this decision might make more sense.
Before Maxwell became what it is today, the team experimented with a multi-city dinner party pop-up and memberships at brick-and-mortar bars and restaurants.
But the team realized its pop-ups were missing two key components: cool people and subsequently, community.
"Any regular event-thrower will tell you this: The coolest people they want to show up get invited to the most other events," Litwak said. "It's not a great way to build community if the coolest people in your community are not attending as often."
So instead of a pop-up concept, Soho House, or Metropolitan Club, Litwak wants people to think of Maxwell as an "old school country club," a Harvard Finals Club, or even "your old school Italian-American club."
All three provide this coveted sense of community — similar to places of worship — that Maxwell is trying to emulate.
So in theory, clubs with similar principles already exist.
But according to Litwak, unlike these organizations, Maxwell doesn't have restrictions based on ethnicity, gender, educational background, or religion.
Instead, the only restriction is how much you're willing to pay.
"We just need to show people there's a modern way to gather in the way we've always historically done," he said.
And by giving guests their own kitchen, Maxwell can save money — no need to hire a kitchen and waitstaff if these roles are already being filled by its members.
Before the club space opened about two months ago, the space was the home to glitzy Chinese restaurant China Blue.
The entire interior was gutted and rebuilt over 13 months. But reminders of China Blue still remain in the form of its logo and the Seamless and Postmates stickers on the club's entry door.
Now, after a $4.5 million buildout, Maxwell looks more like a rich grandparents' living room and sun room than it does a Chinese restaurant.
And Litwak says it's already profitable with 100 members and additional revenue streams like private event rentals.
Maxwell will continue to scale up to 700 members who will all share this 8,000-square-foot space.
To tend to these members, the club will be staffed with five or six people including bartenders, cleaners, a door person, and a manager.
When I toured the club on two separate afternoons, I was greeted with a combination of both moody spaces and a bright rear section that looked like a garden room.
Inside, the two-floor physical space can be separated into four main areas: the entryway that looks like a giant closet, the kitchen that opens into a larger lounge and dining table, the sun room-esque back room hidden behind a rotating bookshelf, and the downstairs basement.
Downstairs, a large functioning bathtub grounds the dark bunker-like space as a photo opp and a place to keep buckets of ice and alcohol.
This lower level is a mix between a movie room, a bathroom, and a stage for live music.
The bathtub pictured above is the one on its top floor — Maxwell has two bathtubs.
Off to the side is where members can find their liquor lockers.
Maxwell has bartenders but part of the appeal is the ability to pour your own drink.
Back upstairs, this upper floor has a library, communal dining table, kitchen, and garden room-like lounge.
A mural of the New York and Paris skyline grace the wall near the ceiling while the all-important kitchen opens onto the rest of this upstairs space.
The modern kitchen is what regular people with Manhattan apartments dream of.
Here, there's a modern stove top with immaculate burners, a glistening golden vent, marble countertops, utensils, and rows of storage.
On the other end of this space, the brighter flowery lounge had several stocked bars.
If the previous space looked like a moody and expensive living room, this looked more like a whimsical English garden or sunroom.
Multicolor copper pots and pans lined the walls while bundles of fake plants decorated the space.
The mismatched pillows, exposed brick walls, and not-too-vintage-looking chandeliers could have the approval of any gardening grandparent.
The communal seating isn't meant to be used as a coworking space.
To prevent this, Maxwell is only open after 6 p.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends.
The point of joining Maxwell isn't to take advantage of the space, its cofounder says. It's the other members.
Maxwell is about the community — it is a social club after all.
This means members can bring their friends, meet new friends, and reserve spaces within the club.
"We're building a community that happens to have a clubhouse," Litwak says.
So if you want to join in on other people's dinner parties, pitch in for potlucks and community dinners, and organize your own dinners, this is the club for you.
In some cases, Maxwell will help with grocery delivery. And cleaners (including dishwashers) come with the membership fee. Now that's a real luxury.
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