Restaurant Clubs Are Everywhere: So What?
Introducing Blackbird Breakfast Club, a year's worth of coffee, community, and invite only events, all in one pass
Today, we are debuting the Blackbird Breakfast Club, a Blackbird platform pass that gets a limited number of lucky members free coffee drinks and breakfast time benefits at some of our favorite New York City joints, like Fairfax, Spring Cafe Aspen, and Gertie (with others to be announced soon!). There has been a lot of talk about restaurant clubs lately. Memberships are dropping like mad, and at places we might not expect, like Taco Bell and PF Chang’s. The fever has made its way to the independent restaurant world, too, ranging from very premium offerings like Carbone Privato, an actual club with a $20,000 initiation fee and $10,000 annual dues, to more everyday fun, like Francie, a great little place in Williamsburg that has just dropped a “membership”, which includes a quarterly $500 credit and VIP reservations access (they didn’t use Blackbird to power this, although they could have).
The Breakfast Club is spread across six venues so far (we are announcing other partner restaurants soon), and the idea of us bundling these six places in an affinity lane is, we think, of note. While it is true that having a club mentality can benefit a certain type of venue, we also think it is extremely risky for the average restaurant to outwardly declare itself a club. They lack the scale of a PF Chang’s, first; second, saying ‘no’ is generally experts-only terrain. It’s why even a place like Gjelina, which has tons of scale relative to most other restaurants, and a brand that sizzles, isn’t thinking about their Friends & Family program as a membership program, so much as just a way to encourage their community to stay engaged.
But people like memberships, being in the club. So, as we think about what we can do for both the Blackbird audience and our restaurant partners, we are excited about programs like the Breakfast Club. Coffee, pizza, cocktails, Soho, omakase, and so many more. These are the restaurant clubs of the future: passion—not place—driven, offering access and benefits to many. Memberships at restaurants should feel like amusement park rides — pick the ones that thrill you the most and buckle up.
Ben Leventhal
Founder + CEO
Blackbird Labs, Inc.
Such an interest feature release from Blackbird!
I am curious about the analogy to amusement park rides--sometimes you pick a ride not knowing what kind of thrill you'll end up having. However, I am guessing here you mean going back to rides you've enjoyed already :-). In general, is there a serendipitous nature to joining memberships at restaurants, or is it more of trial and error and then settling down on a favorite or a set of favorites?