If you are from California, you might question New York City’s supposed heightened sophistication, and how right you would be. I am at the counter of the Malibu Diner on West 23rd Street, and the Malibu Burger (with brie?) and murals of Iceland seem impossibly far from the shore break where No Pants Lance Carson hung ten with such spectacular style back in the day. Historical details are significant, and I have always been attracted to restaurants with California place-names, like Petaluma when I lived on the Upper East Side, not that it had anything to do with California beyond the name. Petaluma lasted almost 40 years. Another local favorite was a hipster spot in Brooklyn called Bar Bolinas that closed in 2021. I mention this with certainty that there will never be a Bar Brooklyn in Bolinas. (See fame aficionado Graydon Carter’s celebrity-photograph rule: Do not display a picture of yourself with a notable person in your house unless that person displays the same photo in theirs.)
Being from California has never been particularly useful or cool, but the opening of San Vicente West Village has promised to bring glamorous star power and exclusivity to my neighborhood in Greenwich Village. SVWV is the cousin of erudite ex–New Yorker Jeff Klein’s San Vicente Bungalows Los Angeles and San Vicente Santa Monica, which he opened in 2018 and 2024—private-club takes on his elite Sunset Tower Hotel, where Jennifer Aniston, Tom Ford, and Jeff Bezos were regulars. New Yorkers get that, but San Vicente anything also reminds locals here of nearby Saint Vincent’s Hospital, the AIDS-treatment stalwart where the bloodiest triage took place on the sidewalk on 9/11, and which was subsequently developed into condos and townhouses (a four-bedroom went for $40,000,000 in 2017).
In February, a thousand people attended an early-look party in advance of SVWV’s opening. Was it cool? The New York Times coverage of the party mentioned actor Zooey Deschanel, producer Darren Star, and Soon-Yi Previn, the wife of Woody Allen, but wondered whether the city still had enough “juice” to support a wave of private clubs already here—Zero Bond, ZZ’s Club, the Ned NoMad, Casa Cipriani—that play to people appropriately creative and rich enough to pay for membership. The Times’ point was that power in New York City is “cultural as much as it is capital.” You could hear the laughter from San Onofre to Bohemian Grove.
This article appears in Issue 32 of Alta Journal.
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San Vicente initiation fees run from $3,200 to $15,000 (tiered by age), with an annual fee of $1,800 (for those under 35) or $4,200 (35 and up). Two other clubs, the Twenty Two and Casa Tua, recently opened NYC locations, joining the self-described 1930s-Parisian-chic Chez Margaux, which opened in 2024. Coming from a slightly different angle is the NFT-based Flyfish Club, supposedly the world’s first private club blending traditional exclusivity with modern blockchain technology—whatever that means to sushi. Most of these clubs are within a mile or so of SVWV, and all offer curated assortments of rooftops, restaurants, multiple bars, deluxe hotel rooms, and, of course, exclusive privacy. The operative word is curated, especially when applied to creative and cultural programming. The proliferation reflects post-pandemic shifts in work culture and socialization nostalgia, but the mood was best captured by political strategist Jon Reinish, who rhetorically asked a reporter from the Times covering the opening of the bungalows, “Does real fabulousness even take place in public anymore?”
What’s cool in California doesn’t necessarily translate in New York, and vice versa. It never has, and being from California, I’ve seen collateral damage on both coasts since Johnny Carson was drinking at Hurley’s in midtown 10 years before he moved The Tonight Show to Burbank. Those were the days when New Yorkers half expected Californians to show up in Hawaiian shirts and make a big deal out of Mexican food. What really worked, though, was the Soho House that opened in 2003 in the Meatpacking District and was followed by Soho House West Hollywood in 2010 on Sunset Boulevard. There are 46 (and counting) Soho locations worldwide. That’s a lot of fabulousness. And the thing is, you can pretty much buy your way in, although the San Vicentes require nomination by a member, and Klein told New York magazine he had rejected many billionaires. “Money doesn’t matter,” he said. “In fact, if you’re a rich person, you probably have less of a chance of getting in than a non-rich person.” Which is why SVWV has reportedly swaggered in with a crew of confidential “ambassadors” to recruit (curate!) members. If you’re worthy, you allegedly might see visitors Taylor Swift or Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan. And Elon Musk is a member. •
Terry McDonell has published widely as a journalist, top-edited a number of magazines, and was elected to the American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame in 2012. He is president emeritus of the Paris Review Foundation and most recently cofounded Literary Hub.
