Seattle
A neighborhood club for Fremont
Self-declared center of the universe, with tech offices, a canal, and a steep hill behind it. $49 a month, and everything inside at a 10% mark-up.
Fremont has two personalities: the canal-level blocks around N 34th and N 36th, which fill up after work, and the hill above them, which is houses. Office buildings arrived and the rents followed. A Fremont club would sit in the gap between the two, open on a Tuesday night to people who live within ten minutes of it.
What going out in Fremont costs
The strip is compact, so a night out in Fremont is usually four or five blocks and three stops. That compactness is expensive. Seattle cocktails run sixteen to eighteen dollars before tip, and a casual dinner for two clears seventy. Twice a week puts you at six or seven hundred dollars a month, and most of that buys the rent on the building rather than the drink in front of you. IRL charges cost plus ten percent, so a cocktail is about four dollars.
| Per week | In Seattle | At IRL | Saved / month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekday coffee (5 a week) | $7 | $3 | $87 |
| Lunch out (2 a week) | $19 | $6 | $113 |
| Drinks (4 a week) | $17 | $4 | $225 |
| Dinner out (1 a week) | $28 | $8 | $87 |
| Monthly total | $732 | $270* | $462 |
*Includes the $49 monthly membership. Menu prices only, before tax and tip in the Seattle column, which is where the real gap gets wider. Annual difference: $5,543.
Nothing on that list is extravagant. Five coffees, two lunches, four drinks and one dinner is a quiet week. At Seattle prices it still comes to $732 a month, which is $5,543 a year more than the same week costs at cost plus ten percent.
Join the waitlist
Get a club in Fremont
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 Fremont
A lot of Fremont is people in their late twenties and thirties who moved for a job, know their coworkers, and have not met a neighbor. The crowd turns over as leases do. Meeting someone once at a bar does not turn into anything, because there is no reason to be in the same room again next week. Memberships here open in pairs and groups, so you arrive with at least one person and the rest accumulates.
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 Seattle.
Where a Fremont 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 Seattle club is planned for Wallingford. Fremont opens when enough people here are on the list, which is the only thing that decides the order.
Landmarks inside or bordering the radius: Fremont Troll, Fremont Bridge, Burke-Gilman Trail, N 36th Street, Fremont Peak Park.
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 Fremont list together.
Near Fremont
Other Seattle neighborhoods
Questions
- Is there an IRL club in Fremont yet?
- Not yet. Every neighborhood starts as a waitlist, and the first Seattle club is planned for Wallingford. We open a neighborhood once enough people who live nearby have signed up, so the Fremont list is what decides whether and when a club opens here.
- How much does the Fremont 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 Fremont member actually save?
- On a normal week of five coffees, two lunches, four drinks and one dinner, Seattle menu prices come to about $732 a month. The same week at IRL is about $270 including the membership, a difference of roughly $5,543 a year before tax and tip.
- Do I have to live in Fremont 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 Fremont 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.