Montauk Club members?

jessicasophia

The thread about Open House New York got me to thinking about Montauk Club. When my fiance and I were looking for a site for our wedding, we toured the Montauk Club and actually considered becoming members (partly so we could say haughtily, "You must dine with us at the club!"

We went to one of the new member nights, and were somewhat disappointed. No, make that very disappointed. No one was there to welcome or talk to prospective members, and the event turned out to be just some sort of boring, and badly attended, lecture on art history. We snuck out before it even started and instead went to dinner at Franny's.

Anyway, is anyone here a member? Please dish! It seems like a cool concept to be part of a social club.

easternpkwy

My wife and I are members, and enjoy it for a variety of reasons: it is quiet (many times we are the only people having dinner, plus 2 or 3 at the bar) and really quite informal, the food is good, and the drinks are strong.

The surprise is that it is a great place for kids: We have a 2 1/2 year old, and this is the only place we can go out to eat a civilized meal and let her 'loose': they keep a box of toys on hand, and give her all the popcorn she can eat.

The membership is mostly seniors or empty-nester couples, so we are VERY young in comparison. But while we may be a bit starved for company from our own age bracket (late 20s), the staff and other members have always been warm and welcoming to us...

Given the child factor, we've never gone to any of the 'social' nights like you were at...but I imagine they could be snoozers!

emily

Can you give info about how you become a member, how much it costs, can you bring guests, do the have a gym or other facilities etc.?

I used to belong to my university club, but I quit because I neither work nor live near it, plus membership fees skyrocket after your fifth reunion. Apparently you have five years after graduation to become a Captain of Industry, so I guess I've failed at that. :roll:

The Montauk building is really cool looking. They definitely get points for that!

alafairnadia

EmilyM wrote: Can you give info about how you become a member, how much it costs, can you bring guests, do the have a gym or other facilities etc.?

I used to belong to my university club, but I quit because I neither work nor live near it, plus membership fees skyrocket after your fifth reunion. Apparently you have five years after graduation to become a Captain of Industry, so I guess I've failed at that. :roll:

The Montauk building is really cool looking. They definitely get points for that!

they have a website, which is http://www.montaukclub.com/
membership doesn't look awful, but I can't figure out their friend policy, how much meals/drinks actually cost, the facilities, the hours, etc. but they seem to have scrabble.

emily

Funny--didn't find that on Google. Oh well--it's not that informative, anyway.

alafairnadia

EmilyM wrote: Funny--didn't find that on Google. Oh well--it's not that informative, anyway.

they left it untitled, so it falls at the top of the page. genius.

easternpkwy

I am not sure about the pricing...there is an initial /annual fee, plus a monthly minimum that gets charged whether you go that month or not, and all this varies depending on single or family, over 35 or not, Brooklyn resident, etc....I also bet that this is negotiable: they are more interested in getting bodies in the door to use the club than nitpicking about fees.

Basically, complete meals are in the $20-$25 range per person. Drinks are $6 or so, and they have half price happy hours of course. We have never had a problem bringing friends/guests...

The only facility is really the bar/dining room. There is no fitness/recreational component. But there is a pool table, mutliple games, big screen TV - where watched the Red Sox choke on Wednesday (grr!) - and meeting rooms that they make available to groups...

Do stop by, any evening after 6 or so, and talk to the lady at the desk. They are very friendly! There is some sort of trial period for membership as well...

anonymous

Subject: Montauk Club - bad experience

I am bit of a lurker on these boards but feel that I must chime in about the Montauk Club. My husband and I, along with a number of friends, were members of the Montauk Club for a year about two years ago. During that time, we went for drinks a couple of times and brunch a number of times. In addition, my friend hosted her baby shower there. At the time we signed up, the Club misadvertised a special promotion they had going with Eastern Athletic. It was what motivated us to join. 4 months into the membership, Eastern Athletic realized that the Montauk Club was misrepresenting the policy that they had agreed upon with them to potential members and revoked everyone's reciprocal gym memberships. I called the Montauk Club repeated times to get an explanation and was only treated rudely and unprofessionally. They did not honor what they promoted after we had paid (and did not refund money) and more importantly, did not even take time to give members who experienced this problem, an explanation.

Bonnie

But that is not my only complaint. Someone else said that they made strong drinks. That is true BUT that's because they do not know how to mix a drink at all! I ordered a screwdriver and they pretty much screwed that up! In addition, the food is deplorable. When we went for brunch, they put muffins in their plastic packaging in a basket on the table. Service was slow and food was usually cold.

The up side is that the space is beautiful and if you could host an event there and bring in the food, it's worth joining. But that's the only reason I would ever recommend anyone join. Seriously, they could really make it into something special if the management gave it more thought and was willing to invest in making it a classier establishment.

anonymous

Subject: woops

I signed my post and it fell in the middle of the previous post.

obi

Subject: Montauk club

hey since it is a social club, does it allow smoking? For me that is in itself a reason to join a social club, one where, like the old days, can eat and then when finished have a cigarette and a drink. wow I miss those days.

anonymous

Subject: Montauk Club

My fiance and I just recently booked our wedding reception for Sept. 2006. I literally had my heart set on The Montauk Club since before we were engaged - in my 3 1/2 years in Park Slope I had walked by it countless times and it never ceased to leave me awed.

Well. For starters, it took me about 4 weeks to get someone on the phone. We were so so disappointed by how we were treated there when inquiring about holding our reception. For starters, I don't believe the rooms are taken care of as well as they could be - for example in the "reception" room, it looked like the beautiful windows hadn't been washed in years. Not to mention, they were horrible to us. The woman who is the event manager, Susan, treated us like we had some nerve inquring about a wedding reception, just kind of flippantly showed us around. When we brought my mother back on the weekend she told us to (and my mother had driven all the way in from Jersey in horrible Sunday traffic), she wouldn't even let us SEE the place. On our third and final visit, we were not allowed to taste the food and told to come back yet again to do so. She was snippy and rude, and when all was said and done we couldn't imagine being welcomed to join as members (which we were interested in doing along with our event)

As much as I loved the building, I couldn't reconcile being treated like dirt in the process of planning the best day of our lives, so we headed into Manhattan. Disappointing - I really wanted to hold our wedding in our beloved neighborhood...it's a real shame that the Montauk Club isn't managed better.

11238

Keep it in BK, try the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Probably one of the best run venues in the tri-state area.

carnivore

11238 wrote: Keep it in BK, try the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Probably one of the best run venues in the tri-state area.

Or the Picnic House in Prospect Park.

The Aquarium can also be rented out. My department's holiday party was there last year. Very cool!

stacey

11238 wrote: Keep it in BK, try the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Probably one of the best run venues in the tri-state area.

I agree with you there - they have their own caterers who are fantastic.

There are also many catering halls here in Bklyn. Such as The Grand Prospect Hall, Russo's on the Bay, Sirico's (where I had my wedding I know if you have your wedding on a Friday night or Sunday night the price per person almost drops to half.

I have also been to bridal/baby showers at Marco Polo on Court Street where we had the whole top floor (about 50-60 people with lots of room)

emily

I went to a wedding at the Ethical Society, which was really nice. But it sounds like the person who posted that already chose a site in Manhattan.

easternpkwy

as the only (?) member to post so far, I suppose I have to comment...

I have no experience with the wedding trade, mind you - that is a separate part of the club's operations. But while I am appalled at the treatment you received, I am also not entirely surprised: the desire (and ability) to market the club properly on the membership front is sorely lacking, and I can only imagine that it is similarly poor on the wedding front.

That having been said, the club itself is very nice, once you get past some of these opening hurdles...

chippenziedeutch

Did anyone go to any Cyclones games last year? There was a billboard in the outfield for the Riviera (I think), and all it said was:

The Riviera - only one wedding at a time

cracked me up every time.... and then, the next season, they were gone! I guess they changed their policy...

pensodyssey

EmilyM wrote: I went to a wedding at the Ethical Society.

I'll bet the decision whether to have fish or steak really ignited a lively discussion!

obi

Subject: Mia

I am supposing that smoking is not allowed at this social club. Too bad.

anonymous

My coworker got married at the Grand Prospect Hall in Park Slope. It is beautiful in there. The food was fantastic and I had a ball!

anonymous

Subject: Sorry about your treatment at the Montauk Club

A new member to Club, I am really very sorry how some of you have been treated. I have to admit that I have experienced some of the same. I joined the club because it part our neighborhood history and believe it should be saved for the future.

It is also great to step off the 2/3 and have a beautiful place to have a cocktail/drink before heading home.

I'm going to make certain that the Club board is aware of your comments and do what I can to make certain these very real problems are addressed.

The young couple on Eastern Parkway makes a wonderful point of it being a great place for families for the reason they mention.

Those of you who have a bad experience I can only ask that you give the Club another chance.