Restaurant memberships: a different kind of hospitality

In private club-saturated New York City, where the Soho Houses are packed with remote workers working elbow to elbow, there is no shortage of exclusive places to fork over initiation fees to, from old stalwarts like Casa Cipriani and the Metropolitan Club to comparative newcomers Zero Bond, the Ned, and Maxwell Social. You can take your pick of places with the sheen of prestige and exclusivity, to which you can invite your friends, and maybe show off a little bit.

But for $500 a quarter, you could become a member of your favorite restaurant, such as at Francie, the Michelin-starred Brooklyn brasserie owned by John Winterman, formerly of Batard and Daniel, and chef Chris Cipollone, formerly of Piora and Cotogna.

“It’s a club for people who don’t want to belong to a club,” says Winterman, as I sit down with him to begin to understand how a Francie membership works.

It’s not always easy for me to get a table at Francie, especially if I want to dine at say, 8pm on a Friday. It usually involves me texting John, pleading for a couple of seats in their dining room, which seats 60, or at their 10-seater bar.

“We’re in a strange phase of restaurant life where people aren’t cultivating relationships the way they were,” says Winterman. We’re also at a strange phase in New York where coveted restaurant reservations can be incredibly difficult to come by, warranting dedicated line-skipping apps (like LineLeap and Skippit), panther reflexes to jump onto Resy weeks before dining at precise moments when reservations are released and before seats are gone, members-only platforms for difficult reservations like Dorsia, and ‘re-sell’ reservation trading apps like ResX.

“I think the point of those line-skipping apps is that you’re going to a restaurant to check a box, you’re not really interested in developing a relationship with the restaurant,” says Winterman. He has relationships as a regular diner with restaurants that compel him to seek them out in a snowstorm. “Or if a hurricane is coming in. We had Irene followed by Sandy and the day before everyone had to close down, you went and supported the neighborhood spot.” What Francie offers is a systemized way of this very human relationship with a business. Something that can’t really be purchased in New York’s more traditionally transactional private clubs.

Every three months, $550 (there’s a $50 bonus) is loaded into your house account to be used for any purchase at Francie. Unused funds do not expire and roll over indefinitely. You have private access to a liquor cabinet and a private text line to make reservations. “Is that your phone number?” I ask Winterman. “I’m not telling you that,” he responds.

The owners have a sense of humor about the membership they launched in April of this year. “In addition to the above, you can expect to receive rounds of applause upon entering the restaurant, high fives from the chef, a picture of the owners suitable for framing, access to the coolest playlist in Brooklyn, and drinks at the bar with the owners,” proclaims the landing page for Francie’s membership.

There’s no initiation fee. “Everything you put into it you get back,” explains Winterman.

The platform that Winterman uses to manage the membership is San Francisco-based Third Place and Francie was one of the first New York restaurants to be onboarded. “It’s based on the concept that everyone needs a third place to go and hang your hat and relax. It’s an elevated version of the corner pub,” says Winterman. They currently have 70 members, but spouses and partners can be listed as users so in reality, it’s about 130 people with membership access.

And why do this? “It offered a way to create a structural family for the restaurant. People who live in the neighborhood, who have been supporting us since we opened and instead of me trying to reach out to people individually, I can address everyone as a group and give them perks,” says Winterman. As the restaurant plans more events like wine dinners and martini Mondays, members hear the news first. “We have an Austrian winemaker coming in on November 1st. The people who first get that information will be the house account members. I have members who aren’t on social media, so if I put news up on Instagram, they’re never going to see it. And it’s better to have a personal connection.” Members are also the first to hear about menu changes.

Having a house account can smooth awkward dining situations. “You can leave and never worry about getting a check. It has happened in the last couple months where one of our house account members didn’t want to quibble about the check with someone they’re trying to take to dinner. Their guest is handing me a credit card in the hallway… this eliminates that whole thing. Another guest has a personal account and a business account, so he can entertain clients.” As far as the economics go for members, “Even if you just come to Francie four times a year, it makes sense.” The annual spend is $2000, in a city where a couple dinners out with friends easily costs that.

Once Francie reaches a hundred memberships, Winterman plans on slowing them to a trickle, to avoid oversaturation. He and Cipollone are also opening another restaurant next door to Francie, Allegretto, devoted to pizza and Southern Italian food. There will be a membership at Allegretto as well. I ask him if he sees other restaurants starting similar memberships. “I hope restaurants do it in a way to cultivate return business and as an extension of hospitality to their most ardent supporters,” he says.