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ever speak disrespectfully of Society... Only people who can’t get into it do that. - Oscar Wilde

The private members’ club may have seemed daunting a few decades back, especially to egalitarian New Zealanders. Back then, and maybe still, the image of a members’ club was usually “gentlemen only”, and all a bit snobbish and stuffy. Fusty old retired colonels in three-piece grey flannel suits, hidden behind their newspapers as they snored in leather armchairs - that was the common impression.

Things had a distinctly contemporary shake-up in the 1980s, when The Groucho Club opened its doors on Dean Street, in London’s Soho district. “The Groucho,” as it soon became known, was the antithesis of stuffy. By the

N 1990s it had a firm hold on media types, as well as rockers like Damon Alburn, plus manqué and real art-world celebrities like Damien Hirst and other members of the YBA movement (Young British Artists).

Of course, if we can remember those times, we probably weren’t really there, but as the white dust of hedonism settled and ashtrays went the way of Britpop, The Groucho persevered. It also found itself with competition.

The sedate members’ clubs like The Garrick (which recently voted to remain a gentleman’s club), and White’s (established in 1693) carried on as ever, but a new and brasher breed of private club had arrived.

Principally there was Soho House, whichhas expanded its brand in the last dozen or so years, with establishments not only in London, but also the English countryside,

The building, a converted retirement home for army officers, went up in 1898. Its architects can scarcely have conceived how it would be used 117 years later.

ONLY GOD CAN MAKE A GENTLEMAN - ANYONE CAN MAKE A COCKTAIL

New York, Berlin, Istanbul and Los Angeles.

Based as I am now in Budapest, but something of a veteran of the London club scene, I was bemused a few years ago to see Budapest gain its own arts and media private club, Brody House. Now, while travel writers might resort to phrases like “Jewel of the Danube” or the “Paris of the East,” to describe Budapest, it’s still a most charmingly dilapidated metropolis.

Although international coffee chains, sushi joints and backpacker hostels are now commonplace in the Hungarian capital, the city has retained its authentic character. Just wander a little off the beaten track in say the 8th district, and it is like stepping back in time.

So, used as I was to Budapest’s shabby genteel character, it was a surprise at first to see a club like Brody take off in such a big way, which it most assuredly has. It all goes on behind closed doors. Those doors are tucked just a discreet

distance from the Champs-Élysées of Budapest, Andrássy Avenue.

The address is Vörösmarty utca 38, and the sign that hangs outside reads Brody Studios. This is the home of the Brody arts and members club, and to a vibrant, ever-changing cultural programme.

Brody is definitely more along the lines of the Groucho or Soho House than Brook’s or Boodle’s (two more clubs of the old school tie variety). We’re as likely to find skinny jeans as we will three-piece suits here. And this is Budapest, not London or New York, or even Berlin.

There’s a cosy informality about the place and its denizens. Brody Studios’ members are an eclectic mixture of socialites, artists, business people and celebrities. With the number of international film and Television productions being shot in Budapest these days, it’s not uncommon to spot famous faces at the piano bar, or even on the dance floor. (But of course even if you are star-struck, or just wildly

impressed, the trick is not to show it.)

Their ever-changing cultural programme is just what it sounds like. Most nights of the week on just about every night of the year, something is happening at Brody Studios. Mixologists test-drive new cocktails, vintners showcase wines old and new.

There are English language stand-up comedy nights every month that pull big crowds, eager to hear world-class comedians in the flesh, something you can’t exactly take for granted in Central Europe.

There are regular literary evenings, that have drawn an impressive list of writers from around the region – and indeed the four corners of the globe.

Brody Underground Cinema is a monthly showcase of work by Hungarian and locally based filmmakers. Throw in live music, guest DJ nights, pop-up fashion stores and keynote addresses by movers and shakers from the

by Scott Alexander Young

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business world and we can see there’s seldom a dull moment. Speakers and performers are drawn from this country’s rich talent pool, but also from a wide-ranging international network.

Many of these events are followed or accompanied by dinner. Napkins on the tables proclaim that, “If you accept an invitation to dinner, you have a moral obligation to be amusing.” Now of course, not everyone who sits down to dinner would give Dorothy Parker, the eloquent American poet, critic and satirist, a run for her money, but the conversation is consistently lively, sparkling even.

The building, a converted retirement home for army officers, went up 1898. Its architects can scarcely have conceived how it would be used 117 years later.

With its rough luxe interior – think paint peeling artfully from walls, furnishings often comprised of “found objects” and eclectic works of art about the place - the studios are a happy blend of the traditional

and the progressive. Many of the artworks are

sourced from artists who have worked, or indeed still do work within the building itself. There are three levels, with a bar, dance floor and dining room, plus a screening room upstairs; a piano bar and a sheltered courtyard on the ground floor and in the basement, a games room with billiards and even table football.

A little back story. Brody Studios is part of the Brody House Group, which was founded 2009. This was when two creative entrepreneurs from London, Peter Grundberg and William Clothier, decided that what this city needed was a meeting place for inspired and successful individuals from both home and abroad - implying everything from book launches to comedy nights, from big, hedonistic parties to private art showings.

The fun began in an elegant townhouse across town named Brody House, which was home to the first such gatherings and a few

premises and meet some of the members.

We could start by joining the biggest club of all (Facebook, now with a billion friends) and subscribe to Brody House’s updates. We will see which of their events are open to the public. The restless and dynamic Clothier and Grundberg, and their hardworking and highly polished staff have plans to expand the “Brody-verse” even further, in Budapest and beyond.

Back to the South Pacific. There have been member’s clubs in New Zealand for quite a long time, considering the country’s short history.

For instance, I was a guest speaker at the Christchurch Club some years ago, and was impressed by the fact it was purpose-built as a private club in the 1860s. It was seriously damaged in the 2009 earthquake.

I note with interest that these days, Auckland has its own Groucho, Soho House or Brody, in the shape and form of the Seafarers. It’s in a harbourfront building on the Britomart, which was once a home to seafarers from, well, the seven seas.

Designed by award-winning architects Fearon Hay, Seafarers is spread over four floors of the Seafarers Building in Britomart and is open from early until late.

The Michelin Star-awarded chef, Josh Emett, is no slouch in the catering department. According to their website, at the heart of it all is the member’s lounge and bar, plus a rooftop bar, which is attached to the chic Ostro bar and brasserie. The latter, I believe, is open to the public.

So even if we can’t quite crack the private members’ club scene, at least we can console ourselves with a good, strong drink.

After all, as American humourist PJ O’Rourke once put it: “Only God can make a gentleman, but anyone can make a cocktail.”

rambunctious parties as well. After one too many complaints

from their neighbours, Will and Peter decided the house on Brody Sandor Street would serve best as a boutique hotel, and began searching for a home for their members’ club, somewhere they could turn the volume up a little, and switch the fun-meter right up to 11. Thus it was, in 2013, after gutting and renovating a building that was just on the right side of derelict, that Brody Studios was born.

If we would like to insinuate our way into this little enclave of high achievers and well-heeled bohemians, how would we go about it? While Brody may have thrown off many of the trappings of traditional members’ clubs, the rules for joining remain the same.

We have to be recommended by a member, and then that membership has to be seconded and approved by management. And then of course, pay the annual fee. But before we get that far, it’s safe to assume that we’d like to visit their

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