Seattle
A neighborhood club for Roosevelt
A light rail stop, a high school, and new apartment blocks on 12th Avenue NE. $49 a month, and everything inside at a 10% mark-up.
Roosevelt got a light rail station and several hundred new apartments at roughly the same time, and the neighborhood is still absorbing both. The blocks near NE 65th Street hold more residents than they did five years ago and about the same number of places to sit. A Roosevelt club would be a short walk from the station for most of them.
What going out in Roosevelt costs
The station makes it easy to leave, so a lot of nights out from Roosevelt happen somewhere else, with fare and travel time added to the bill. Locally it is a handful of blocks around NE 65th and Roosevelt Way. Either way the numbers hold: twenty dollars and up for an entree, and a second drink that costs more than the first one should. At-cost pricing is the entire difference. Four-dollar cocktails, eight-dollar dinners, paid for by a flat monthly fee.
| 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 Roosevelt
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 Roosevelt
Most of the newer buildings are studios and one-bedrooms, and most of the people in them are in their twenties and early thirties. They pass each other in the lobby. Transit-oriented neighborhoods are good at moving people and bad at keeping them in one place long enough to talk. Regular hours and a fixed membership do the keeping. Joining in pairs or groups also means the first visit is not a cold room, which is what stops most people.
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 Roosevelt 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. Roosevelt opens when enough people here are on the list, which is the only thing that decides the order.
Landmarks inside or bordering the radius: Roosevelt Station, Roosevelt High School, NE 65th Street, Froula Playground, Roosevelt Way NE.
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 Roosevelt list together.
Near Roosevelt
Other Seattle neighborhoods
Questions
- Is there an IRL club in Roosevelt 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 Roosevelt list is what decides whether and when a club opens here.
- How much does the Roosevelt 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 Roosevelt 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 Roosevelt 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 Roosevelt 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.