Los Angeles
A neighborhood club for Koreatown
The densest neighborhood in Los Angeles, built around Wilshire and Western. $49 a month, and everything inside at a 10% mark-up.
Koreatown has more people per square mile than anywhere else in the county, almost all of them renters, most of them in buildings with no common room. Metro stations sit along Wilshire Boulevard every half mile. Walking is realistic here. A neighborhood club would be one of the only indoor places in Koreatown that is neither a bar nor an apartment.
What going out in Koreatown costs
Going out here is unusually easy and unusually frequent, because it is all within a few blocks and the Metro runs under Wilshire. Frequency is the problem rather than the drive. Late nights, rounds and shared plates add up fast, and five or six outings a week is a normal pattern for someone in their twenties living in a studio. Four hundred to six hundred dollars a month goes out that way. A forty-nine dollar membership with four-dollar cocktails and eight-dollar dinners changes what frequency costs.
| Per week | In Los Angeles | At IRL | Saved / month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekday coffee (5 a week) | $7 | $3 | $87 |
| Lunch out (2 a week) | $20 | $6 | $121 |
| Drinks (4 a week) | $18 | $4 | $242 |
| Dinner out (1 a week) | $30 | $8 | $95 |
| Monthly total | $766 | $270* | $497 |
*Includes the $49 monthly membership. Menu prices only, before tax and tip in the Los Angeles column, which is where the real gap gets wider. Annual difference: $5,959.
Nothing on that list is extravagant. Five coffees, two lunches, four drinks and one dinner is a quiet week. At Los Angeles prices it still comes to $766 a month, which is $5,959 a year more than the same week costs at cost plus ten percent.
Join the waitlist
Get a club in Koreatown
Join the waitlist. We open a neighborhood once enough people nearby are on the list, and memberships open in pairs or groups, so bring someone.
One quick thing —
You are on the list.
Memberships open in pairs (or more). People referred together join together, and bigger groups move up the list.
$49/month when we open. No card now. Leaving the waitlist is one click.
Making friends in Koreatown
Density does not produce friendship on its own. People live stacked on top of each other here and still arrive and leave alone, and turnover in the buildings is high enough that the person across the hall changes every year. The nightlife is plentiful and anonymous. What is missing is a room with a membership list, where the fact that people join in pairs and groups means there is always someone present who already knows someone.
The mechanism matters more than the intention. A club has opening hours, a membership list, and a monthly volunteer shift, which means you end up in the same room as the same people on purpose and without scheduling anything. More on that in how to make friends in Los Angeles.
Where a Koreatown club would sit
We draw a walking radius, not a city boundary. A club only works if getting there is a short enough walk that you go without deciding to go. The first Los Angeles club is planned for Atwater Village. Koreatown opens when enough people here are on the list, which is the only thing that decides the order.
Landmarks inside or bordering the radius: Wilshire Boulevard, Western Avenue, Seoul International Park, Lafayette Park, Wilshire/Normandie Metro D Line Station.
The short version
- $49 a month. That is the whole membership. No initiation, no minimum spend.
- Everything at a 10% mark-up. $2 drip coffee, $3 latte, $4 cocktails, $6 lunch, $8 dinner.
- A 3-hour shift a month, if you want to. Plus one park day. Not mandatory, and it is the fastest way to actually meet the other members.
- Memberships open in pairs or groups. Anyone who joins through your link is in your group, and bigger groups move up the Koreatown list together.
Near Koreatown
Other Los Angeles neighborhoods
Questions
- Is there an IRL club in Koreatown yet?
- Not yet. Every neighborhood starts as a waitlist, and the first Los Angeles club is planned for Atwater Village. We open a neighborhood once enough people who live nearby have signed up, so the Koreatown list is what decides whether and when a club opens here.
- How much does the Koreatown club cost?
- $49 a month, the same in every neighborhood. Inside, the menu runs at cost plus a 10% mark-up: $2 drip coffee, $3 lattes, $4 cocktails, $6 lunch, $8 dinner. There is no initiation fee, no minimum spend and no card required to sit on the waitlist.
- How much would a Koreatown member actually save?
- On a normal week of five coffees, two lunches, four drinks and one dinner, Los Angeles menu prices come to about $766 a month. The same week at IRL is about $270 including the membership, a difference of roughly $5,959 a year before tax and tip.
- Do I have to live in Koreatown to join?
- No, but it helps your position. Clubs are built around a walking radius, so we weight the list toward people who actually live close enough to drop in without planning it. You can join the Koreatown list from anywhere and tell us whether you live locally.
- What is the volunteer shift?
- Members are asked to work one three-hour shift a month, and to join one park clean-up day a month. Neither is mandatory. Both exist because they keep the cost base low enough to sell a cocktail for $4, and because working a shift next to someone is a faster way to meet them than standing near them at a bar.