Eat Out London!Chess Club
Chess Club is a private members club with private dining located at Chesterfield Street, Mayfair, London. Opening January 2017. Apply online for membership.
Chess Club
Tell us why you do what you do* (300 words maximum) Tell us why you do what you do is required.
Why would you like to be a member of Chess Club?
* (300 words maximum) Why would you like to be a member of Chess Club is required.
Reviews and related sites
The Members-Only Club Making Chess Cool | AnOther
The adjective ‘cool’ is not one used often to describe a Mayfair members-only club – particularly one which has made chess its unique selling point.
That is, unless, you are referring to Chess Club, a newly opened space in one of London’s most distinguished locales.
Conceived by Francesca Zampi, who also founded The Box nightclub, and the Experimental Group (a troupe of Frenchmen who collectively own 17 bars, clubs and restaurants dotted across the world including the Experimental Cocktail Clubs we know and love), the business partners have collaboratively transformed a derelict building on Chesterfield Street into a haven for members who might want partake in a chess tournament alongside their whiskey sour.
“A lot of members clubs are segmented by what your industry is.
Don’t let the Mayfair location fool you into thinking that it was chosen for its exclusivity, either: “I think what lies underneath the idea of the club is to be able to host it in a very central location convenient for all of London.
Smart moves: London's new Chess Club bar | How To Spend It
When the Experimental Group opened its soigné speakeasy Experimental Cocktail Club in London’s Chinatown in 2010, it was at the vanguard of a “quiet bar” revolution in the capital.
Now the group is branching out with the Chess Club, a members’ club in Mayfair centred around the cerebral board game.
Opening on February 6, the club is collaborating with Malcolm Pein, director of the London Chess Classic, to create an in-house grandmaster’s residency, and members can organise a lesson with a grandmaster or pop by for a game at any time in the upstairs bar.
“We wanted to offer something different in London,” says Pierre-Charles Cros, co-founder of the Experimental Group, which also owns 17 bars, restaurants and hotels around the world.
Membership of Chess Club costs from £450 per year, and online applications are now open.
Chess Club London: Private Members Club in Mayfair – Martyn ...
ambience drinks menu location
Created by Experimental Group in partnership with Francesca Zampi of Found Entertainment, the Chess Club is designed to break away from the traditional design and concept of a typical Mayfair club.
Interior Designer Fran Hickman was given the task of creating unique spaces for the club and has drawn her inspiration from the concept of a modern-day salon, celebrating the townhouse's original Georgian features whilst marrying them with the finest of contemporary design.
The townhouse's original large windows and side panelling remains untouched, painted pristine white, allowing natural light to flood the restaurant during the day.
The washrooms continue the vintage style, clad with teal glossy tiles, reminiscent of the almost clinical pantry designs seen inside early 20th-century villas.
It is this careful balancing act between the appreciation of original design and the passion to evolve that makes this place so special, creating a new breed of members clubs that are sure to have an impact on the London scene.
Finally a food-led members club? An interview with Scot Paterson of ...
food staff
“We don’t want to overcharge them” says Scot to me, sitting next to the clubs beautifully carved chess board (how appropriate), “Sometimes the food is second to the reason why they come to the club; it’s our job to do the best sourcing possible and be as creative as we can.”
Scot tells me, “but The Chess Club is different, it’s a food-led members club.”
I ate at Chess Club last week and I really observed the rewards that a combination of attention to sourcing and the work of top chefs offer: bloody good food.
Fill out the enquiry form on our website to get a quote on your food DetailsScot Paterson, Head Chef(@Scotpatersonchef) Tom Childs, Sous chef of Chess Club (@tomfromkent).
Tom also runs The Hygge Club (yet this club is not exclusive, so snap up your tickets for their next event here: Boxer, Chef Patron of Brunswick House Chess Club London (@jacksonboxer)
Decorating With Hundreds of Butterflies - The New York Times
food staff
There are now 257 butterfly bookplates adorning the restaurant walls of Chess Club in London — a distinctive new addition to Mayfair’s private member’s scene — and every single one can be traced back to a pilgrimage taken by the interior decorator Fran Hickman.
Last summer, on vacation in Tuscany, Hickman took the train north to Turin to tour the apartment of the late Italian architect and designer Carlo Mollino.
There’s a nautical 19th-century bed on an aqueous blue carpet, and eye-catching leopard print walls, but it was the room’s 316 butterflies, potent symbols of Egyptian funeral rites, that left a lasting impression on Hickman.
The custodian of Casa Mollino shared with Hickman the source of these bewitching butterflies — the 1950s photography book, “Joyaux Ailes, un atlas des plus beaux papillons du mode,” from which the plates were torn out and framed for the room.
True to its Turin source, Chess Club shows off the sultrier, more decorative side to Hickman’s aesthetic.
Chess Club: Mayfair's New Members' Club - Openings and News
Last week we told you about Henrietta Hotel, Covent Garden’s new hotel brough to you by the Experimental Group.
Well now Romée, Pierre-Charles, Olivier and Xavier are turning their attentions to Mayfair with the launch of Chess Club.
Opening this month on Chesterfield Street, they’ve teamed up with Francesca Zampi of Found Entertainment to create a Mayfair member’s club which has all the best parts of a members’ club, but without the membership fee which is equivalent to your rent.
It’s going to be a place that champions the Experimental Group’s ethos – excellent drinks, vintage spirits, great music and relentless attention to detail.
READ THESE: Henrietta Hotel Opens in Covent Garden New Openings in London