Look Out, Zero Bond: Jean-Georges Vongerichten Is Opening a Members-Only Club, Chez Margaux | Eater NY

"Jean-Georges Vongerichten is getting into the private-club game with Chez Margaux, turning what used to be his 18,000-square-foot Spice Market into a members-only supper club and hospitality complex that includes a modern French restaurant, private dining areas, a library, a lounge with a Japanese-leaning menu, and a caviar salon that becomes a late-night bar called Gaux Gaux after 10 p.m. The project, at 403 West 13th Street at Greenwich Street and developed with Michael Cayre’s Midtown Equities, leans on inspirations of “the elegance of Paris in the 1930s” and “London’s renowned nightlife culture,” and the LinkedIn description pitches the supper club as an “inspirational dining experience” while Gaux Gaux will be a late-night playground with DJs. Renderings show a lush rouge reception with tasseled slipper chairs, curtains, and a velvet banquette; a dining room with a back bar partly obscured by four material arches and luxurious seating; a more neutral lounge with a fireplace, wall sconces, and animal-print-accented cocktail tables; and the companion caviar salon that transitions into the club. Membership is tiered—an under-30 rate at $1,800 per year with a $1,000 initiation and older members at $2,600 per year with a $2,000 initiation—and the club’s rules prohibit photography, iPads and laptops, and casual attire like ripped denim, baseball hats, flip-flops, and sandals. The club’s promotional copy also nods to Jean-Georges’s past — from bringing tuna pizza to the Mercer Hotel in 1997 to his ABC dining presence — positioning him as a figure of New York hospitality." - Melissa McCart