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The nightclub shuffleBy Matthew Hathaway ST. LOUIS — With its dark, wood-paneled walls and leather chairs, the Lucas Club looks about as established — and establishment — as any of St. Louis' members-only redoubts of power and privilege. In fact, it doesn't officially open until Jan. 1, and the upstart club — one of the first upscale, private saloons to open in the city in decades — isn't so much intended for the bankers and CEOs who have arrived as for those of the next generation who are on their way up. "We're going after a younger crowd: entrepreneurs, attorneys and people in advertising and public relations who can see the benefit of having a place they can call their own," said Jan Christian Andersen, director of marketing and sales at the club and at the Lucas School House, an affiliated concert venue across the street. The two businesses are at Allen and Gravois avenues on the western edge of Soulard. Owner Dan Jameson imagines Lucas Club members using the neighborhood's late-night scene as a backdrop for negotiating and deal making. "There are interesting, young professionals who realize there is business to be done outside of business hours," said Jameson, 45, of St. Louis, who left tax consulting a few years back to start rehabbing properties. He opened the Lucas School House last year and hopes to convert a shuttered church next door into a larger music hall. Unlike most other private clubs around town, the Lucas Club makes no pretense about exclusivity. If you can pay the annual fee, and the club hasn't hit its membership limit, you're in. No need to be sponsored, and no blackballing. Members won't own the building. Instead of fine dining, the menu will be appetizers only. There are no squash courts or trunks-optional swimming pools; in fact there's no pretense at all about the club revolving around fitness or sports. If anything, music is the thing in a club modeled after the members-only Foundation Room in several nightclubs of the House of Blues chain. THE CLUB TRADITION While Jameson and Andersen strive to set the Lucas Club apart as young and hip, it taps into a social tradition in St. Louis dating to the 19th century, when much of the city's history was made behind the closed doors of those places once dubbed "gentlemen's clubs," but now often described as city or legacy clubs. The idea for the 1904 World's Fair, for instance, was hatched at the 121-year-old St. Louis Club, which now sits atop Clayton's Pierre Laclede building. In 1927, members meeting at the Racquet Club in the Central West End decided to hype the city by underwriting the adventures of a young aviator named Charles Lindbergh. As recently as August, when St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and former Sen. John Danforth announced their intention to revamp the riverfront by stripping land from the National Park Service, the men unveiled their plans at the 114-year-old Noonday Club, a luncheon club that occupies the top of the Metropolitan Square building downtown. Patrick Hanna, a spokesman for the Washington-based National Club Association, said the country's most prestigious city clubs remain strong, particularly on the East Coast. He said New York City has about 25 such clubs; Washington has about a dozen and Boston boasts several. But the trend, if one exists, is for private clubs to close rather than open, said Mark D. Eble, a vice president of San Francisco-based PKF Consulting, which researches trends in the hospitality industry. He said a club's death spiral starts when, to cover costs and increase revenue, it relaxes its own membership standards. "The basic idea of a club is us versus them, that some people won't make it past the door," Eble said. "But a lot of the old clubs now will take anyone who opens his checkbook. ... And, if exclusivity isn't there, the whole thing seems to lose some of its magic." These places also face the same problems as country clubs in recruiting younger members. Hanna said the average age for a member of a private club is 56, and "everybody wants to have newer and younger people." THE FEE Andersen said he's hoping for about 200 members — "just enough to maintain a sense of exclusivity" — but he wouldn't say how many have signed up. The annual membership dues of $790 for individuals and $990 for corporations, with no initiation fee or monthly spending minimum, are a fraction of the costs of belonging to one of the area's more established private clubs. The Missouri Athletic Club offers a sliding scale for members under 35 that varies, depending on one's age, from $600 to $2,700 annually, excluding initiation costs, monthly minimums and other fees. The club has about 3,100 members, including more than 400 under 35. Two years ago, when the MAC's push for younger members started, there only were about 80 members under 35, said Scott Engelbrecht, the club president. A group that is trying to re-form the University Club, which closed in April after 135 years, is considering a $1,000 initiation fee and $250 monthly dues. The priciest and most exclusive social clubs — like the Racquet Club or the St. Louis Club — generally do not make public the cost of belonging. Andersen said the Lucas Club will have little in common with those places. "Most people at the age group we're going for aren't going to be able to afford those clubs, unless their parents are paying for it," he said. Andersen imagines a more lively club — one where members and their guests meet for drinks before going out on the town or visit late at night for a nightcap, or several. Membership benefits include never paying a cover charge at the open-to-the-public School House lounge, and being able to buy tickets early at concerts there and elsewhere. The second floor of the club soon will be converted to meeting spaces and a separately ventilated cigar room (the rest of the club is nonsmoking), making the size of the club about 4,800 square feet. There are plans for a rooftop deck, and a wine cellar for members' favorite bottles. During the day, when the club's bar is closed, the space will be available to members for business meetings and catered lunches. That's important to George Kruntchev, a club member and real estate developer who often struggles to find a place to meet with business clients. "In real estate, you're always on the go. You're moving from site to site, and having meetings at (St. Louis) Bread Co. or Starbucks," said Kruntchev, 32, of University City. "But if you can have a meeting at your club, it puts you in a completely different light." Kruntchev, who moved to St. Louis about four years ago after working in Kansas City and New York City, said he hopes the club can make St. Louis seem a little less insular to young professionals not from around here. Or, as he said, "When you go in there, the first question that's going to be asked of you isn't, 'Where did you go to high school?'" (Kruntchev, for those who want to know, went to high school in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria.) mhathaway@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8121
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