Los Angeles
A neighborhood club for Mar Vista
Flat, residential Westside blocks between Venice Boulevard and the 405. $49 a month, and everything inside at a 10% mark-up.
Mar Vista is quieter and flatter than its neighbors, mostly post-war houses and small apartment buildings, with Venice Boulevard cutting through at an angle. It is cheaper than Venice and less built up than Culver City. There is not much of a main street. A neighborhood club in Mar Vista would be the destination rather than one stop on a longer night.
What going out in Mar Vista costs
Venice Boulevard is wide, fast and not a street anyone strolls, so going out means driving ten or fifteen minutes to Culver City, Santa Monica or the beach. That drive sets a floor on the evening: once you have committed to parking, you stay and you spend. Two people sitting down on the Westside now pay thirty or more per entree and twenty per cocktail. Three evenings a month is already three hundred dollars. The club version is forty-nine dollars with the menu at cost plus ten percent.
| 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 Mar Vista
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 Mar Vista
The mix here runs toward couples in their thirties with a first house, design and engineering people, and residents who have been on the same block since the 1970s. It is a neighborhood where most people are home in the evening. Sunday morning at the farmers market is the only time the same crowd is reliably in one place. One weekly evening with the same faces, plus a monthly park day, does what a market morning cannot, which is get you to a second and third conversation.
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 Mar Vista 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. Mar Vista opens when enough people here are on the list, which is the only thing that decides the order.
Landmarks inside or bordering the radius: Venice Boulevard, Mar Vista Recreation Center, Grand View Boulevard, Mar Vista Branch Library, Centinela Avenue.
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 Mar Vista list together.
Near Mar Vista
Other Los Angeles neighborhoods
Questions
- Is there an IRL club in Mar Vista 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 Mar Vista list is what decides whether and when a club opens here.
- How much does the Mar Vista 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 Mar Vista 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 Mar Vista 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 Mar Vista 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.