The Ultimate Guide to Private Members’ Clubs in New York

Over the last several years, we’ve seen a massive increase in membership clubs across major US cities, with New York leading the charge. And now, New York City’s private members’ club scene has never been more competitive — or more diverse. The traditional model of mahogany-paneled dining rooms and old-money networking has given way to a new generation of clubs that cater to tech founders, creative professionals, wellness devotees, and the social media set. Meanwhile, the old guard continues to thrive for those who can get through the door. It’s one more layer of the city’s social infrastructure covered in our complete guide to Haute Living New York, alongside the hotels that increasingly blur the line between club and stay.

Here’s the guide to the most exclusive, interesting, and worthwhile private members’ clubs in New York City for 2026, from legacy institutions to buzzy newcomers.

Core Club

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Core Club

The Core Club remains New York’s most exclusive private club, having relocated in 2023 from its original Midtown townhouse to a new address at 711 Fifth Avenue. Founded in 2005 by Jennie Enterprise, Core has built its reputation on an intensely curated membership — now reported at roughly 1,500 members — of CEOs, hedge fund managers, tech founders, and cultural figures. The club features a restaurant, bar, spa, fitness center, art collection, and private meeting rooms, all designed to feel like a private residence rather than a commercial club.

Zero Bond

Scott Sartiano’s Zero Bond, which opened in 2020, has become the celebrity club of choice in downtown Manhattan. Located in a converted 1874 warehouse on Bond Street, the space combines industrial architecture with luxe finishes — marble, brass, and leather throughout. The restaurant serves elevated Italian-American cuisine, and the cocktail bar becomes one of the most exclusive nightlife destinations in the city after 10 p.m. The membership skews entertainment, fashion, and media, with a famously photogenic crowd. Unlike more traditional clubs, Zero Bond leans into its social media presence and cultural cachet. 

Casa Cipriani

Occupying the 1909 Battery Maritime Building on the waterfront, Casa Cipriani is both a private members’ club and a boutique hotel. The Cipriani family’s signature Italian hospitality permeates every corner — from the bellini service to the waterfront terrace overlooking the Statue of Liberty. Dining options include an Italian restaurant, a cocktail bar, and a spa and fitness center. Hotel rooms are open to the general public rather than restricted to members — non-member guests who book a stay become “Honorary Members” for the length of their visit, making it a more accessible hybrid than its members-only reputation suggests.

San Vicente West Village

Jeff Klein, the hotelier behind Los Angeles’s famously exclusive San Vicente Bungalows, brought his no-photo, no-phone club culture east in 2025, converting the ballroom of the former Jane Hotel into San Vicente West Village. The membership process runs entirely on internal referral — a prospective member needs nomination from an active member before a monthly review committee even considers an application — and the strict ban on cameras and social media posting, enforced with physical stickers placed over phone cameras, has become as much a part of the club’s identity as the address itself.

ZZ’s Club

The ultimate Miami-New York hybrid, Major Food Group’s Jeff Zalaznick, Mario Carbone, and Rich Torrisi built ZZ’s Club at Hudson Yards as a two-floor homage to their now-closed, Michelin-starred ZZ’s Clam Bar, complete with a Clam Bar lounge paying tribute to the original. The club houses the signature Japanese restaurant ZZ’s alongside Carbone Privato — the world’s first private Carbone location — plus a cigar terrace, sports bar, and Ken Fulk-designed interiors, and has quickly become one of the most expensive and selective clubs in New York’s current club boom.

Moss

Among the newest additions to New York’s club scene, Moss opened in November 2025 at 520 Fifth Avenue, positioning itself as a “new style” of members’ club — less about exclusivity for its own sake and more about genuine community. Founded by sisters Colleen and Hailey Brooks, Moss offers what its creators call “intelligent hospitality”: thoughtful programming, curated events, and spaces designed for both socializing and focused work. By Manhattan standards, the pricing is notably accessible — a deliberate strategy to attract members based on fit rather than net worth.

Chez Margaux

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Chez Margaux

Opened in the Meatpacking District in fall 2024, Chez Margaux pairs a members-only supper club with a public-facing restaurant helmed by executive chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The red-hued, Paris-in-the-1930s aesthetic runs through a modern French dining room, a Japanese-inspired lounge, a library, and private dining rooms, while the caviar-and-cocktail bar transforms into a late-night club called Gaux Gaux after 10 p.m.

The Aman Club

The Aman Club, inside the historic Crown Building on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, has built a reputation as one of the most expensive private clubs in the world — a reported $200,000 initiation fee, $15,000 in annual dues, and an invitation-only process that has made it as much a status symbol as a place to actually spend time. The club’s 25,000-square-foot subterranean wellness center anchors the experience, with a 65-foot heated pool, two spa houses, and cryotherapy programming that few clubs in the city can match, alongside a private wine library, a cigar terrace, and a 7,000-square-foot Garden Terrace overlooking Fifth Avenue. Members also get priority access to the property’s subterranean jazz club and its in-house restaurants, Arva and Nama. Whether the fee justifies the access is a genuine debate even among members — but for guests who already live or work near Midtown and use the wellness amenities regularly, the Aman Club offers a level of urban sanctuary that few addresses in the city can replicate.

The Ned NoMad

The London-born Ned concept arrived in New York inside the 1903 Johnston Building, bringing multiple restaurants, bars, a rooftop pool and terrace, and a gym spread across the property. The members’ club floors feature private dining, a cocktail bar, and event spaces. The aesthetic is Art Deco meets contemporary — original architectural details alongside modern furnishings and artwork. The Ned’s strength is its hospitality infrastructure — the hotel-club hybrid model means members benefit from hotel-grade service, restaurants, and amenities that standalone clubs can’t match.

FlyFish Club

FlyFish Club, conceived by Gary Vaynerchuk alongside restaurant-industry partners David Rodolitz, Josh Capon, and Conor Hanlon, opened on the Lower East Side in fall 2024 as a seafood- and omakase-focused private club, including a speakeasy lounge called the Cattail Room and an omakase counter curated with sushi chefs Masa Ito and Kevin Kim. FlyFish Club occupies three levels and more than 12,000 square feet, anchored by a signature restaurant, a speakeasy lounge, a private dining room, and a discreet omakase counter reserved for select members only. Designed by Garrett Singer Design, the club was built around a straightforward premise: members who take food seriously, gathered around world-class dining and a shared appreciation for craft, rather than networking for its own sake. Membership extends beyond the property itself, with priority reservations at partner clubs in other major cities, curated events, and private experiences built around the same culinary focus that defines the space.

Coco’s at Colette

Coined as a private dining club, Coco’s at Colette occupies the 37th floor of the General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue, and it has quickly become shorthand for a new category of club altogether — part co-working space, part private dining room, capped at roughly 300 members paying a reported $125,000 initiation fee and $36,000 in annual dues. Coco’s at Colette has emerged as one of Midtown’s most discreet power-lunch destinations, drawing hedge-fund principals, founders, and family offices who prefer its intimate bar, dining room, and chef’s-table omakase counter to the theater of assigned-table hierarchy that once defined the original Four Seasons. It’s less a members’ club in the traditional sense than a professional ecosystem with a kitchen attached — proof that the city’s private club boom now extends into the workday itself.

The Club at 22 Vanderbilt

For those who spend their professional lives in Midtown, 22 Vanderbilt offers a prestigious address steps from Grand Central Terminal with the amenities of a modern club: dining, conferencing, wellness facilities, and a curated events calendar. The club is positioned as a “professional pied-à-terre,” targeting senior professionals and executives who want a refined alternative to hotel lobbies and coffee shops for meetings and client entertainment.

The Metropolitan Club

Founded in 1891 — 135 years old in 2026 — largely at the initiative of J.P. Morgan after a friend was blackballed from the Union Club, the Metropolitan Club occupies a Stanford White-designed palazzo on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 60th Street. The building alone — Corinthian columns, soaring ceilings, and a grand staircase — makes membership worthwhile. The club maintains a formal dress code and traditional dining service largely unchanged since its founding. This is old New York at its most unapologetic.

University Club

University club is a true testament to the ‘old guard’ of private members clubs in Manhattan. One of New York’s most architecturally significant clubs, the University Club occupies a McKim, Mead & White masterpiece — designed by Charles Follen McKim — on Fifth Avenue. Membership requires an earned bachelor’s degree from any accredited college or university, not exclusively elite institutions, though the application process still involves multiple nominations and interviews. The club features a library, squash courts, guest rooms, and dining facilities that maintain an academic atmosphere.

For more of Haute Living’s New York coverage, see Haute Living New York: The Ultimate Guide to Luxury in the City That Never Sleeps and ZZ’s Club Is Major Food Group’s New Private Membership Club in NY.