Seattle
A neighborhood club for South Lake Union
Office towers, apartment towers, and a park at the south end of the lake. $49 a month, and everything inside at a 10% mark-up.
South Lake Union was warehouses twenty years ago and is now one of the densest employment centers in the region, with housing stacked on top of it. Lake Union Park and the shoreline are the only parts that feel unplanned. A South Lake Union club would serve people who live and work inside the same twelve blocks.
What going out in South Lake Union costs
Almost everything open here is priced for an expense account. Lunch near the office is eighteen dollars, a cocktail after work is seventeen, and both are five minutes from the desk, which is how people spend a thousand dollars a quarter without noticing. Weekends empty out. The club alternative is unglamorous and cheap: forty-nine dollars a month, lunches at five or six, cocktails at four, in a room that is open whether or not the offices are.
| 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 South Lake Union
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 South Lake Union
The neighborhood is full of people in their twenties and thirties who relocated for work, and the default social structure is the team they were hired onto. When the job changes, the network goes with it. Tower lobbies and building gyms do not produce conversations. What does is a small membership, regular hours, and a reason to be in the room that has nothing to do with a job, including a volunteer shift once a month.
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 South Lake Union 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. South Lake Union opens when enough people here are on the list, which is the only thing that decides the order.
Landmarks inside or bordering the radius: Lake Union Park, Museum of History and Industry, Westlake Avenue N, Denny Park, Cascade Playground.
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 South Lake Union list together.
Near South Lake Union
Other Seattle neighborhoods
Questions
- Is there an IRL club in South Lake Union 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 South Lake Union list is what decides whether and when a club opens here.
- How much does the South Lake Union 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 South Lake Union 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 South Lake Union 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 South Lake Union 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.