The Swan Map · New York · 6 rooms
Where to go outin New York.
Everything that matters happens between 50th and 80th on the East Side, plus four blocks of Chelsea on a Thursday. The rest of the city is where people live.
Open to you right away
One room, given in full
The night, the hour the room fills with the people you came for, who is in it at that hour, and what an evening there actually costs. No sign-up, no email.
Hotel bar · Upper East Side
Bemelmans Bar, The Carlyle
The last room in New York where the money is quiet, the piano is live, and a woman alone at the bar is unremarkable.
- When
- mardi, mercredi, jeudi · 6 – 8.30pm
- The check
- $30 to $70 for one or two drinks, before the cover charge.
- Getting in
- Walk in
Who is there
Old New York and the people who work for it: estate lawyers, gallerists, surgeons from Lenox Hill, and a steady flow of guests of the hotel who are in town for three nights and talking to everyone.
What to wear
The room is dark and the murals are busy, so wear one colour. A blazer or a column dress. No sneakers — the door will seat you anyway, but the room will have read you.
How to walk in
Sit at the bar, not at a banquette. The banquettes are for parties and the bar is where single guests are put. Before 8.30, the music is background and a conversation is possible; after the cover charge starts, it is not.
To someone who has just been handed the bill and winced.
“It is a lot for a drink. It is cheap for the room, though.”
It is true, it is funny, and it is an opinion about where you both are. Then ask whether they are staying upstairs or came for the bar.
This room has not been visited in person for Swan Club yet. Call before you travel — and if you go, tell us what you found and we will correct the page.
In The Club
5 more in New York, where the people who decide cross paths
Memberships, invitations, rooms where the hour matters more than the address — fewer people, and more of the ones who count. You do not walk into these by accident. For each one, the same thing as above: the night, the hour, what to wear, and the first sentence.
Hotel bar
Midtown East
Galleries
Upper East Side
Tasting
Garment District
Galleries
Chelsea
Sport
Brooklyn / Long Island City
The other cities
- Miami6 rooms
- Chicago6 rooms
- Los Angeles6 rooms
- Dallas6 rooms
Swan Club is coaching, not matchmaking. We introduce no one, we promise no one, and nothing here is a claim about what will happen to you.