Top marks at the Groucho
Groucho Club
45 Dean Street, London W1
Tel: 0171-439 4685
Owner: The Groucho Club London Plc
Executive chairman: Anthony Mackintosh
No of club members: 3,700
Membership: £325 (London); £160 (juniors - under 28); £150 (overseas); £175 (country)
Joining fee: £250 (London and country); £150 (overseas and juniors)
Membership categories: 39% TV, film and theatre; 24% writers, journalists and publishing; 20% art, design and fashion; 17% other.
Some 40% of members are women.
Celebrated columnists rub shoulders with well-known actresses at the bar, while up-and-coming thespians challenge a fledgling film director to a few frames of snooker upstairs. It's a regular evening at the members-only Groucho Club in London's fashionable Soho.
But what happens when the gin and tonic has been sunk along with the snooker balls? Do the famous and not-so-famous flock to the first-floor restaurant, or make a beeline for the bar's brasserie - or do they move on to one of the many trendy restaurants in the capital where they can see and be seen?
Nichola Carter, marketing manager, agrees that competing with the street while being unable to draw custom from passers-by is one of the challenges of running a private club - it's one reason why Groucho Club London Plc's new venture in Glasgow will not be strictly members only (see panel). And Carter suggests that the Groucho perhaps has more difficulties keeping its members interested than other clubs: "People are hedonistic in the art and theatre world, so they need a good drink and creative food."
In charge of keeping the food at the cutting edge is head chef Angela Dwyer, who has worked at restaurants such as Chez Panisse in California, Alastair Little's in London, and 192, the Kensington Park Road restaurant which is part of The Groucho Club London Plc stable.
Dwyer's menu is varied. In the restaurant, for instance, dishes range from baked brill with pea purée and sorrel sauce to vegetarian burgers. The à la carte menu is changed every two weeks, although for the benefit of regular diners the two-course Club Lunch changes every day, as do the specials in the evening.
As well as holding interest, the dishes have to be priced carefully. Carter says it's important to keep profit margins down because a large proportion of the 3,700 members pay up to £300 a year on top of a maximum £250 joining fee. And, ironically, although members share the fact they work in the media spotlight, they range from mega-rich film stars to wallet-watching journalists.
Prices in the Groucho Club's 40-seat restaurant and 55-seat brasserie, therefore, compare well with rivals in the area, attracting, for instance, about 100 covers every lunch. Downstairs in the bar-brasserie, the stock favourite, a Bloody Mary and a sandwich, comes to just less than £10, and a Groucho's burger with relish, dill pickles and chips is £8.50. Upstairs in the restaurant the two-course Club Lunch is £10.50, while on the à la carte menu, the most expensive dish comes in at about £13 for, say, grilled tuna with purple sprouting broccoli and hollandaise.
The restaurant is open from breakfast, through lunch and tea to dinner. However, while local competitors do a roaring trade on Saturday night, the Groucho restaurant closes, except for private parties. This is because many members get out of London at the weekend. Peak time tends to be Thursday and Friday, when the restaurant is usually fully booked.
Despite this, Carter says, it is not that difficult to generate business. The key to the Groucho is that famous people can be left in peace with other famous people. That's partly proved by the fact few members leave once they've got past the membership board - for instance, some 800 of the 1,000 founder members who joined when the club opened in 1985 remain.
The 75 staff are key to maintaining the privacy that members are buying. One criterion when recruiting them is that they are discreet - asking for autographs is out as, needless to say, is leaking stories to the press.
Members are also attracted by the ambience, which costs the club £1,000 a week to maintain. Architect Tchaik Chassay, and designer Melissa North have kept many of the historic building's original features. The homely atmosphere has been created through the use of domestic upholstery, but although they are striving for the battered-about look, wear and tear has to be contained.
"It's always being refurbished. People spill and break things and treat it like home," says Carter, adding that it's a very British concept. "Americans and Australians don't get it; they want to know where the tennis court is."
The Groucho is more than just a restaurant and bar, however. Banqueting and hotel facilities help to boost trade, as reflected in the results. The financial year to May 1998 saw turnover at the club increase by £190,637 to £3,627,062, representing a 6% overall increase in business. Gross profit stood at £2,780,523.
Some 30% of revenue is from business generated by the club's three private reception rooms. They cost from £75 to £350 to hire and hold between 30 and 80 people theatre-style for meetings.
There are also 19 bedrooms, which see 90% occupancy at £40-£110 a night, including Continental breakfast. For a central London location, Carter believes the rate is hard to beat, although there is no room service. A lot of overnight guests are overseas members from Australia and the USA - and because of the nature of the guests there can be group cancellations if, say, a film is cancelled. n
