Pricing
What $49 a month covers
One price, the same in every city, with menu prices underneath it that do not move with your rent. Here is the arithmetic, including the case for not joining.
The whole price list
| What | Cost |
|---|---|
| Membership | $49 / month |
| Initiation fee | None |
| Minimum spend | None |
| Guest fee | None |
| Tipping | Not expected |
| Waitlist | Free, no card |
The membership is the mark-up. Everything inside is priced at cost plus 10%.
The fee is identical in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles, which is deliberate. The menu prices are identical too, because they are set by what ingredients and labour cost rather than by what the lease costs.
Where the fee actually goes
Roughly, and it will vary by site: a bit over half of the membership covers rent and the build-out amortised across the lease, a bit under half covers payroll for the staffed hours, and the remainder covers insurance, utilities, licences and card fees. The volunteer shifts are what keep the payroll share from eating the whole fee.
Nothing in the membership is allocated to the menu. That is the point of the structure, and it is why a 10% mark-up is survivable. The full version of this argument is on how it works.
When it pays for itself
At member prices, a latte saves about four dollars against a normal cafe and a cocktail saves about thirteen. The membership breaks even at roughly twelve coffees a month, or four cocktails, or one dinner plus a couple of drinks. Most people who join because of the price will clear it in the first ten days.
Join the waitlist
Pick your neighborhood
Join the waitlist and tell us where you want a club. We open a neighborhood once enough people nearby are on the list.
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.
What a month looks like in each city
The same weekly basket, which is five weekday coffees, two lunches out, four drinks and one dinner out, priced at local menu rates against IRL member rates.
| City | Normal monthly | At IRL | Saved / year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seattle | $732 | $270 | $5,543 |
| San Francisco | $801 | $270 | $6,375 |
| Los Angeles | $766 | $270 | $5,959 |
Menu prices only. Tax and tip apply to the middle column and not to the membership, so the real gap is wider than this table.
When you should not join
If you go out less than about once a week, the membership will not pay for itself and you should not buy it. If you do not live within a walk or a short ride of the club, you will not go often enough for the arithmetic to work either, and we would rather you joined the list for your own neighborhood and waited.
The membership is also month to month. There is nothing to cancel beyond stopping the payment, and leaving the waitlist is a single click in any email we send.
Questions
- How much is an IRL membership?
- $49 a month, in every city, with no initiation fee, no annual fee, no minimum spend and no guest fee. Inside the club the menu runs at cost plus a 10% mark-up, which works out to around $2 for drip coffee, $3 for a latte, $4 for a cocktail, $6 for lunch and $8 for dinner.
- How many drinks do I need to buy for the membership to pay off?
- About four cocktails, or twelve coffees, or one dinner with a couple of drinks. A cocktail at a normal bar runs $16 to $20 and costs $4 at IRL, so the $49 fee is recovered inside the first few visits for anyone who goes out weekly.
- Is there an initiation fee?
- No. Most private members clubs charge several hundred to several thousand dollars to join before the monthly dues start. IRL has no initiation fee, no joining fee and no deposit. The waitlist is free and does not ask for a card.
- Can I cancel?
- Yes, at any time. The membership is month to month with no contract and no minimum term. If you are still on the waitlist rather than a member, every email we send has a one-click way out.
- Is the price the same in every city?
- Yes. $49 a month in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the menu prices are the same too. Because the menu is priced from ingredient and labour cost rather than from the lease, a cocktail does not cost more in San Francisco than in Seattle.