Are member-only dining clubs vulnerable to technology advances that in the past decade have rendered paper maps, pay phones and film cameras obsolete and conditioned us to communicate on social media more often than in person?
Other factors support the notion, including Orange County’s vibrant dining scene and an abundance of modern office spaces that offer substantial opportunities for people to meet and conduct business.
Yet two local clubs appear to remain as relevant today as they did during the 1980s when OC’s business elite got together to establish them.
Costa Mesa-based Center Club’s membership has grown 70% to about 960 since the post-recession slump, while Pacific Club in Newport Beach, with a roster of more than 600, is “fast approaching a waiting list.”
“Almost as long as I’ve been in the club business—which is 37 years—I’ve always heard that clubs like this are dying,” said Pacific Club General Manager Joseph Gatto, who 16 years ago held a similar position at the Center Club.
“But they’ve always existed, and they will always exist, regardless of any economic downturns or technology changes. There’s always going to be a need, because we are human beings, to have that personalized service and … for that one-on-one contact.”
Michael Flynn, a co-managing partner at law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Irvine, heeded his mentor’s recommendation to join the Pacific Club in the late 1990s. Membership there, the mentor said, would provide an opportunity for the up-and-coming lawyer to network with members of the local business community.
The advice still holds true, said Flynn, who over the years became “very involved” and served as the club’s president from 2011 to 2013. Digital communication is an essential part of our lives, he said, but can’t always replace the need for face-to-face collaboration.
“You can know somebody on paper, you can know their resume and all of those quantitative things, but if you’ve not watched them in person to see how they react to situations, you’re missing a part of knowing them,” he said. “[The club environment] facilitates that kind of bonding much more quickly.”
Orange County is also home to several luxury country clubs, whose membership base shares a common interest—tennis, golf or yacht racing. While “business happens” there, it’s not the facilities’ primary focus.
“It’s like comparing an apple to an orange,” Flynn said. “Pacific Club is a business club and makes no bones about it.”
Pacific Club
The club is the brainchild of real estate developer Tom Talbot, who’d frequented the California Club in Los Angeles and saw a need for a similar “city club” in Orange County.
The club’s 33 founding members, “the who’s who of the business community,” include George Argyros, Gavin Herbert, William Lyon, Donald Koll and Tony Moiso. They pooled their funds in 1981 to purchase Lakeside Restaurant on MacArthur Boulevard and renamed it. Each owned an equity stake in the club and agreed to pay monthly dues. The equity stake price varied over time, reaching $20,000 after a clubhouse renovation in 2006, and dropping to $6,500 during a recent membership campaign.
“We are planning to increase it to $12,000 in the future,” Gatto said. “We had a very successful year and a half. We will never close the membership because you have natural attrition, but we are pretty close to a waiting list to join.”
Members also pay $495 in monthly dues, which enables them to access dining rooms, a state-of-the-art gym and spa, and Talbot Grill, plus participate in club events.
Flynn at Gibson Dunn also uses the club’s private conference rooms for client meetings, which often require a degree of confidentiality.
“You can’t have those discussions necessarily in a restaurant,” said Flynn, who considers the club a better setting for negotiations than his office, in some instances, as “the other side does not want to be seen there, because they’re afraid that the word would get out.”
Members also enjoy a level of “personalized service” not often found at restaurants. The staff knows their names and food and drink preferences.
“I tell my employees all the time, ‘We are not in the food and beverage business,” Gatto said. “We are in the recognition business.’”
Rebecca Hall, owner of Costa Mesa-based advertising and public relations agency Idea Hall, joined the club in 2015, and credits her membership for “new relationships and account wins.”
“There is such a strong sense of community at the club, and they treat us like family every time we’re there,” she said in an email.
Center Club
Idea Hall Vice President of Business Development Rachel Svoboda, 36, attended several events at the Pacific Club with her boss and considered joining but felt more at home at the Center Club, which she described as “more youthful and modern.”
The Center Club’s $1,000 initiation fee and young-executive monthly dues of $220 also fit into Svoboda’s budget.
“It cost the same as my Equinox membership, and there’s no equity (buy-in),” she said, adding that perks such as free breakfast and the ability to use her laptop in the club’s Encore lounge helped sweeten the deal. “I feel like it’s like a centralized hub. I run into people there all the time, especially from the advertising industry. I’m also very impressed with their service. Everyone knows my name, how I like my coffee.”
The Center Club contributes an estimated $10 million in revenue to parent organization ClubCorp Holdings Inc., a Dallas-based operator that owns more than 200 facilities, including Coto de Caza Golf & Racquet Club and Aliso Viejo Country Club.
The late Henry Segerstrom, founder of South Coast Plaza, partnered with ClubCorp. founder Robert Dedman Sr. to open the club in 1985, according to General Manager Shahin Vosough. It initially attracted about 1,000 members, mostly arts aficionados who frequented the nearby performing arts center. The roster included Argyros, Zee Allred, Park Kennedy and Larry Higby.
“The Center Club is a completely different place—we don’t share a lot of members” with it said Gatto, who was the club’s first assistant manager. “We share a lot more members with Big Canyon [Country Club in Newport Beach] or Shady Canyon [Golf Club in Irvine].”
The Center Club underwent a $3 million renovation in 2011, matching the interior decor to that of its art-infused community. It also added an “anytime” bar and lounge with a casual dress code.
“Our members no longer wanted mahogany on the walls and leather-bound books—that was your father’s club,” said Tommy Trause, ClubCorp’s regional vice president for the West Coast. “Our business of building relationships and enriching lives is the exact same today as it was in 1957, but the vehicle for doing that has evolved. Our clubhouses today need to be relevant so our members feel comfortable.
“We still have the creme-de-la-creme dining experience for our members who want to be dressed to the nines, but that experience is now complemented with the space where, if you want to wear jeans, you feel very comfortable coming in and using your club as an extension of your living room … Our fastest growing membership categories are dynamic women and our young executives, those members under 40.”
The median age of membership there is 51, and 59 at the Pacific Club, the facilities reported.
Debora Kantor, owner of Kantor Sales Training Associates in Irvine, met last week with fellow club member Amy Miller of Castle Press in Anaheim to discuss sales strategies. Kantor said she recently moved to the area and that joining the club enabled her to build “a network of trusted advisers” who help each other evaluate business ideas.
General manager Vosough said those types of supportive relationships are what the club’s all about.
“We had a very strong start because of our connection to the community, and that’s something that we continue to this day.”
