Chin up, mon chichis. You'll always be welcome at the Hawaiian Tropic Zone (for now).
SOHO House no longer wants to be a place where bankers flock to drink and flirt. Sources told Page Six several financial types, already hit by the economy, had their egos slammed when they were notified by the club that their membership would not be renewed as it was returning to its "artsy" roots. Soho House US operations director Mark Somen told us, "We recently celebrated our fifth anniversary and want to make sure we are staying true to our creative roots.Bankers Are No-No's At Soho [NYP]
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 9:56AM
nick jones always was a prick
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 9:59AM
nick jones, don't act like you don't know my name
Posted by Anal_yst , Mar 31, 2009 10:01AM
In times like these its good to have friends in Music and Media. See ya'll on the roof in a month or two!
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 10:08AM
Never heard of the place.
Charles Gaspascoop
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 10:09AM
None of the really important people ever went there.
Posted by mktmkr , Mar 31, 2009 10:11AM
Hope all the "artsy" types can drop size cash on bottles of Cris like the bankers used to..
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 10:14AM
in 2 years it will be converted into a storage facility
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 10:14AM
@5- meaning you were a regular?
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 10:15AM
in 2 years it will be converted into a storage facility
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 10:15AM
6 Of course they can. By artsy types, he means the ones that work in galleries but pay their bills courtesy of a trust fund. He's not talking Wburg hipsters.
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 10:17AM
in 2 years it will be converted into a storage facility
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 10:18AM
@10 has it.
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 10:19AM
tropic zone close several weeks ago - must have been a lehman crowd and not barcap
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 10:28AM
Oh, please. This is just "spin". The bankers are dropping like flies due to joblessness/bonuslessness. So - let's say we WANT them to leave! Yeah, that's it!
A business WANTS to turn away paying customers during a recession? Sure.
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 10:36AM
I saw Dyl. Rat. giving it strong to Chaz Gasp. in the mens room there 9 months ago. I wasn't sure what to do at the time so I just panicked and ran out.
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 10:37AM
14- exactly- complete horsesh*t. Same reason the waiting lists at all of the county clubs are about to be non-existant. Get ready for the Great Unwashed Shinnecock Hackers....
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 10:40AM
@16: No joke - I am from Fairfield County, and I know of 2 high-end country clubs whose waiting lists are now 0. The initiation fees recently went from $25-$30,000 up to $50,000. So they are saying they can't lower the initiation fee because the people who just paid it the last couple of years would howl; but they need to to attract people. I have been loving watching it unfold.
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 10:41AM
Place is still packed every time I go.
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 10:43AM
hopefully, eventually ALL media and music will be free on the internet and the social drop-outs in those industries will be forced to work for their money rather than be paid for one-off performances of an hour or so that lasts them for weeks/months/years. fair enough its hard to get into and everyone bangs on about the hard work and dedication, but really its hard because so many people want to get in, if the pay was less then less people would want to work there (although there's plenty of fools who want their lives delved into on a daily basis by the media). if they all got paid less then lets see how long soho house lasts, they'll be begging for finance to come back.
plus why isn't the public constantly up in arms that their money, through license fees to record purchases, is largely then blown on coke and ladies of the night, not to mention malawian orphans!
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 10:44AM
In 2 years it will be converted into a Bennigans
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 10:47AM
It's like 1OAK when it opened - they were pissed that bankers had bought their way to the back room in every other club so they decided that you wouldn't be able to buy your way into this club. Now that bankers aren't buying into any clubs, these people have relearned why they started letting people buy their way in - it subsidizes everyone else. Clubs can't survive when the only patrons are B&T chicks and the bartender's friends who drink free all night.
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 10:48AM
19- yes yes well all know supporting and raising orphans is a huge waste of time and money!lol
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 11:20AM
c note will get you in here & everywhere
The future-Bennigans site is true
Look at Lotus, Au Bar, Paladium
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 11:29AM
no more empty suit crowd- only empty pocket crowd
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 12:43PM
A friend of mine took a client to the Soho club last Thursday night for dinner and they wouldn't serve them dinner because neither of them were members. My friend called his brother who is a member to no avail. The Soho dudes are tough!
Posted by Anal_yst , Mar 31, 2009 12:49PM
Yea, should keep a running tally of all the clubs, restaurants, etc that close now that Finance industry can no longer afford to pad their pockets. I can just imagine the sob stories now...
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 12:52PM
@17 - replace "high-end country clubs" with "banks" and "initiation fees" with "bonds" and you've explained the last 9 months.
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 1:13PM
"No bankers" is just another way of saying they're not letting as many ugly people become members. Saturdays were filled with too many finance dorks trying to creep on dime pieces... thank god they adopting some admissions standards.
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 1:16PM
no, idiot@28, it's really not. if bankers still had money, they'd be getting in.
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 1:28PM
@29 another article I read had somedoctor crying that he was just rejected... point is it's not just bankers... they just don't want ugly dorks flooding the place. stray too far from your core and you're nothing... remember when cristal said they don't want rappers drinking cris anymore? same thing... ghetto trash, (like ugly bankers @ soho house) were ruining the brand.
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 1:49PM
@30: nice to see you, Mark Somen! "Ruining the brand" really doesn't cut it as a "nonpartisan post" type comment - please try to disguise better next time. Thanks for trying to spin us!
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 2:00PM
I admit I'm totally clueless. But who exactly are the members of this club? What is the "brand"?
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 2:00PM
I admit I'm totally clueless. But who exactly are the members of this club? What is the "brand"?
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 2:11PM
@29 no, you're the dolt. Sounds like these guys would have paid the fee if they were allowed to. Jackazz.....it's unpopular in every way to be a banker now. I never liked the place, never tried to be a member. Overrated...I have dealt with the dj. idiot. I know people who worked there. It's nothing special, except for a few losers who want to buy their way into the club.
I was able to get anyone who wanted to be on the list on it at any time, and I only went there twice. No bid. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 2:11PM
The women I know that belongs is like the Kim Cattral character from Sex in the City, but less sluttty. In fact, in the show Kim was a member, in order to use the pool, which is in fact very nice. The ladies I've met are somewhat glam advertising, fashion, PR types. Don't know much about the guys. Maybe someone else can help with that? The buzz used to be that they take good looking women in a beat. With guys they're a little more selective. The old velvet rope thing.
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 2:14PM
@34- no you fuckin idiot. soho house no longer wants finance guys b/c they no longer have the cache that comes with working in finance ie THAT THEY'RE RICH. i'm sure a lot of finance guys could still swing the membership fees, but saying "i work in finance" no longer means what it used to. it has nothing to do with their looks, dumbfuck. the only people whose looks matter are the girls.
and congrats on going twice, no one gives a fuck.
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 2:18PM
Guys who think that they need to pay up to belong to a club to get women deserve the treatment that they get. Be a man.
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 2:23PM
36 Not 34 here, but OK, Ill play along. Who is rich in this economy, and therefore being courted by Soho House? Lawyers? Doctors? Architects? Real estate investors? Trust fund kids (maybe at one time, but not after the market decline...)? Artists?
The correct answer is none of the above. Basically, you don't know what you're talking about. No club makes blanket turndowns of potential members based on their view of a persons profession. Its like a fraternity. You evaluate whether or not this person is going be someone the rest of you want to be around behind locked doors.
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 2:24PM
@36. You sound pretty angry, Gaspro. Settle down toolbag. Being RICH was never hip you idiot, it was tolerated. Now it's no longer tolerated. Loosen up your clip on, douche.
Posted by Debter , Mar 31, 2009 2:24PM
"No one goes there anymore!" - Bateman
"I would not join any club that would have someone like me for a member." - Groucho Marx
The place is okay, there are much better clubs to belong to in the city.
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 2:25PM
@38-"No club makes blanket turndowns of potential members based on their view of a persons profession. "
grow a brain cell. telling someone in manhattan you work in finance now will get you a look of pity, not awe. telling a woman that will no longer get her into bed, and places like soho house cater to the shallowest common denominator.
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 2:31PM
@38 - and they want to be on the record saying that they don't take bankers. They want to stay hip. (in their own mind)
The biz model of bars and clubs is make it overly exclusive, keep it like that for a while, then let the most despereate rich dudes pay up to get in, take them for everything they are worth, and then open it to brooklyn, staten island, and long island, and a swan song. they are just trying to keep it going.
I work in this biz just like the rest of you, and I have a friend that begged and begged to get in there. I always though he was a loser. Seriously. There's plenty of a$$ out there.
As far as the two times thing, I was making the point that it's not that big of a deal, otherwise I would have gone a lot more. The place SUCKED. Still does. Take your membership fee and go spend a couple of weeks in the balearic islands. You'll get more for your money.
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 2:33PM
How "difficult" is it to actually get a membership at this place? how expensive is the membership?
Posted by guest , Mar 31, 2009 7:41PM
this is pretty stupid. if your self-worth has anything to do with being a member of Soho house (or any other private club for that matter) you've got a lot more issues than you realize. it's sad that our society has devolved into a place where admittance into a so-called "exclusive" club means anything to anyone.