Where is the pretentious restaurant spiel thread?

[ursus arctos]

It is all cosplay

They are fully licensed and often advertise.

[San Bernardhinault]

It's ersatz 1920s bollocks except you’re paying much more for the booze despite it being legal. It’s all “look how exclusive this is” which might have been the case when the first one or two opened back in the 90s (Milk and Honey probably the first in London which was the model for the bar in the Coach Beard episode of Ted Lasso) but now there’s a “speakeasy” in every town - I went to one in Temecula, for chrissakes - it’s about as exclusive as string cheese.

[Hot Pepsi]

Crossover with the other thread.
I like the idea of having a place to go where everyone knows my name and so forth, but the notion of an exclusive club creeps me out.

[ursus arctos]

And the more exclusive the creepier, in my personal experience.

[Hot Pepsi]

I’m told, however, that it’s not at all hard to join some of the clubs in Manhattan now, even if it is still expensive.

They need members. The Princeton Club invited W&M alums to join, for example. I’m sure we weren’t the first or last on their list. They must be hard up.

[ursus arctos]

This is very true.

I was thinking of the Finals Clubs at Harvard and some of the old school places I was invited to in Europe.

I've only been to the Princeton Club for memorial services. It is one of those weird grafts of a traditional interior onto a modern building.

The best feature of any of the university clubs in my book are the perfectly decent hotel rooms at massively below market rates, but they only really work for single travelers.

[Hot Pepsi]

Yes, I’ve heard that. If I needed to visit NYC on my own dime often - or ever at all - that would be handy.

The former owner of my employer used to stay at Williams’ rooms, I think.

If I lived in a big city, it would be nice to have a place to go that’s fairly quiet, especially if home isn’t quiet. I guess.

[ursus arctos]

That's why Robert Caro still rents a small office that he can walk to from his flat,

I would strongly consider doing the same if I was ever going to write a book. There are quite a few ground floor face previously used by therapists that have become available post-pandemic.

[Sits]

Some bloke invited me to join a club once when I was on a commuter train home from London. Gave me the creeps.

Another bloke (separate commute) invited me to join the IOOF (Independent Order Of Foresters) which as far as I could make out was somewhere between the masons and Rotary/Lions Club. That gave me the creeps too.

[Hot Pepsi]

I could maybe join Kiwanis. They do pancakes. Probably not my vibe.