Los Angeles
A neighborhood club for Mid-City
Central, flat and residential, between Pico, Venice and La Brea. $49 a month, and everything inside at a 10% mark-up.
Mid-City is the part of Los Angeles most people drive through without naming. It is flat and central, mostly duplexes and small houses, bounded roughly by Pico, Venice and La Brea. Rents are lower than in the neighborhoods on either side of it. A club in Mid-City would be the first thing worth walking to for a lot of these blocks.
What going out in Mid-City costs
There is no strip here. People go west to Culver City, north to Beverly and Third, or east to Koreatown, and all three are a drive with a parking problem at the other end. The absence of a local option is what makes it expensive. You never spend five dollars, you spend fifty, because you had to commit to a trip first. Two trips a week is three to four hundred a month. A forty-nine dollar membership and at-cost pricing makes a two-dollar coffee stop possible again.
| 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 Mid-City
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 Mid-City
Mid-City is diverse in a way that is not cosmetic, with Black families who have been here for generations, immigrant households, and younger renters who came for the price. The streets are quiet and the lives on them do not intersect much. There is no obvious meeting ground, indoors or out. A club that opens memberships in pairs and groups, and asks for a volunteer shift, gives people a structured reason to be in a room with neighbors they would otherwise only pass in a car.
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 Mid-City 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. Mid-City opens when enough people here are on the list, which is the only thing that decides the order.
Landmarks inside or bordering the radius: Pico Boulevard, Venice Boulevard, La Brea Avenue, Queen Anne Recreation Center, Washington Boulevard.
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 Mid-City list together.
Near Mid-City
Other Los Angeles neighborhoods
Questions
- Is there an IRL club in Mid-City 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 Mid-City list is what decides whether and when a club opens here.
- How much does the Mid-City 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 Mid-City 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 Mid-City 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 Mid-City 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.