San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Private clubs feature networking, entertainment, places to relax
Not to jinx anything, but the world is opening back up after a long pandemic. Mask mandates have been dropped, people are heading back into the office and travel plans are resuming for the summer.
So naturally, people want to party. Restaurants are crowded, tourist attractions are busy and in-person events are hot again — BottleRock Napa Valley sold out in May, for example, attracting 120,000 music fans for the multi-day concerts and indooroutdoor activities.
Private, high-end social and business clubs in San Francisco are attracting events, too, be it happy hours or professional seminars for members, corporate meetings or weddings. Many of these clubs offer invitation-only memberships, but some also allow groups to rent the spaces for non-member gatherings like weddings, birthday parties and professional team meetings.
Banking on people getting together again is Core Founder and Chairman Jennie Enterprise. Her luxury club is slated to open in 2023 in San Francisco’s Transamerica Pyramid skyscraper, purchased by investor Michael Shvo for $650 million in 2020 and undergoing an extensive renovation.
Spanning 45,000 square feet over three floors of the 48-story tower, the new Core will include three private restaurants, three bars, a fitness center, a theater, six member suites and four private meeting rooms. The target demographic, according to Core’s marketing slogan, is “an international community of minds, mavericks, and leaders.”
Think: visionaries bent on changing the world. And that would be disrupters with healthy wallets.
Core’s initiation fees range from $15,000 to $100,000, plus annual dues of $15,000 to $18,000. Food, drinks and other amenities cost extra, though members do get to visit the other Core clubs in New York and Milan, Italy.
When The Battery opened in the heart of San Francisco’s Financial District in 2013, it welcomed an initial class of 700, including philanthropist Vanessa Getty and Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom.
Currently, membership is around 5,000, though Battery’s Director Of Membership Operations Thomas Kennedy said he expects that to increase as people return to more inperson interactions.
These days, The Battery is as elite as ever, however, nonmembers are allowed to rent certain spaces for private and corporate events.
“I would say about 90% of our events are associated with a member of the club,” Kennedy said. “But we see a great mix of corporate and social events.”
Because of the intimate nature of the club design, gatherings tend to be smaller, seating from two to 90 guests or up to 150 for standing receptions. The club is home to several restaurants and bars, including Penrose, artfully described in marketing materials as “the type of bar that a spy would frequent after a night of mischief … the spot for stiff drinks and soft glances.”
“We see lots of all-day meetings that turn into dinners at night,” Kennedy said. “We also do many milestone birthday celebrations, weddings, anniversaries, memorials and even a few bar/bat mitzvahs.”
In early June, Battery Wine Program Director Christophe Tassan worked with Rasteau AOC of France to host an educational masterclass on Southern Rhône Valley wines as an invitation-only opportunity to taste reds and dessert bottlings from the region. The event was also open to non-members.
And the club is home to the LGBTQ+ Society of The Battery. In addition to the annual June Pride Month programming, this Society provides community activities year-round.
Over at the Wingtip Club in the historic Bank of Italy building on Montgomery Street next to the Transamerica Pyramid, some 1,000 members enjoy a rooftop bar, a wine cave, parlor and game rooms, cigar lounges and a whisky corner. A highlight is the variety of parties hosted throughout the year, such as the annual Frank Sinatra Holiday Party (celebrated on his birthday Dec. 12) and the Great Gatsby
End of Summer White Party.
Occupying the two penthouse floors, the 22,000square-foot club can accommodate events up to 50 seated and 150 reception guests in its primary penthouse or 350 guests for a full-club buyout reception. Non-members are welcome to rent the spaces, too.
“It’s a very consistent balance of several events weekly, hosted both by members and non-members,” said Emily Nguyen, Wingtip’s marketing manager and graphic designer “Non-member hosted events are mostly surrounding business conferences or holiday parties.”
Keeping things efficient amid the classic, Gold Coast setting of gleaming dark woods and hand-painted wallpaper, the Wingtip team provides in-house culinary and bar catering, plus entertainment, photography and décor amenities, plus more unusual accoutrements like Champagne sabering or Port tonging (Port tongs were invented in the 18th century as a way to cleanly decapitate bottles of vintage port whose old corks might otherwise break or disintegrate with the use of a corkscrew).
Members of the City Club of San Francisco, meanwhile, tend to be interested in making business connections and enjoying the arts.
Informal networking is encouraged in the Members’ Lounge/Game Room, during happy hours in the Wine Cellar, at members-only events like museum tours and cooking classes and at monthly Jamison Roundtable Luncheons attended by community leaders.
Members can network on luxury ships, too, receiving reciprocal privileges at the Golden Gate Yacht Club. The City Club is also a favored venue for weddings, business conventions, holiday parties and fundraisers.