South Africa has a long history of private clubs, but they’ve tended to be of the gentlemen’s, sporting and business variety — a far cry from the lifestyle-driven model popularised abroad by the likes of trendy Soho House. Maison Grace, opening this month next to the Cape Grace hotel, is aiming to change that.
Don’t expect small rooms for private chats or a printer churning out reams of documents — though staff will likely print the occasional last-minute boarding pass. Where a country club might offer old wooden furniture, tiles and possibly plastic chairs, Maison Grace’s interiors were designed by DHKI, with Southern Guild curating the art.
“The name has a bit of European flair,” says development director Samantha Wallace, “but it’s very much rooted in South Africa” — in its sourcing, suppliers and staff. The space showcases South African furniture alongside contemporary African art, including work by celebrated photographer Zanele Muholi. Every room is designed to evoke a different mood.
Wallace, originally from New Zealand, moved to Cape Town about a year ago after 16 years in London. Her CV spans Edition Hotels, Soho House, Aesop and Squarespace. “It’s really about building a space to grow community,” she says.
The club takes its name and narrative from a fictional hostess: a South African woman who left home to travel the world before returning to Cape Town with new ideas, friendships and experiences — and opening her home to old friends and new acquaintances alike.
Gracie’s Bar & Lounge is conceived as her living room: a warm, elegant space where members can work, meet, dine and socialise throughout the day. The cocktail menu draws on the people and places she supposedly encountered abroad.
The club occupies two floors. Downstairs is a lounge bar and an event space called the Studio, fitted with a vinyl DJ booth; upstairs is the more formal Brass Room, a restaurant leaning towards French classics with a New York twist. Food and beverage concepting was developed with Paris Society Consulting in its first project in Africa, though execution is in-house.
The FM tried the food and we were pleasantly surprised. Expect a menu that spans prawn cocktails, club sandwiches and linefish; we had excellent fresh kingklip alongside haricots verts done the French way, followed by a delightful île flottante.
Getting in on the game
The club is owned by Kasada, which also owns the Cape Grace, and for which a members’ club is new territory. The model borrows more from New York or London than from anything local: a “third space” open every day of the week, where members might drop in for a morning coffee, take a client meeting and return later for dinner or drinks.
Three to four events are planned each week, from panel discussions and member-led talks to quiz nights and DJ evenings. One of the first, Art of the Exit, will feature three South African entrepreneurs discussing successful business exits.
On Fridays and Saturdays the upstairs lounge becomes a dance floor, with a custom vinyl setup and themed nights pairing small-batch winemakers with music. Each member may bring up to three guests per visit. Throughout, a no-photography policy is meant to give members some distance from the usual performance of a night out.
Membership is by invitation and application, reviewed by a founding committee of 20 people drawn from different industries. Members include founders, entrepreneurs and people from finance, mining, banking, design and the art world.
The common thread, Wallace says, is less profession than mindset: a global outlook paired with meaningful time spent in Cape Town. The median member age is 45; most are based in Cape Town, with a growing number from Joburg and Durban. As with any good club, Maison Grace won’t disclose current membership numbers or its eventual cap.
Pricing is tiered by age:
· Under 35: R17,000 a year, plus an R8,000 initiation fee
· Over 35: R30,000 a year, plus the same R8,000 initiation fee
· Couples: R45,000 a year, plus a R12,000 initiation fee
The club crew
South Africa has seen members’ clubs before, but they’ve tended to be industry-specific and short-lived. Among them was the Pencil Club in Umhlanga, which entered business rescue and then liquidation in early 2025. Its annual fees reportedly ranged from R95,000 to R240,000, and about 40 founding members are said to have paid R1m each for lifetime membership at launch.
Maison Grace arrives amid a broader boom. Post-pandemic appetite for in-person connection has been strong, and the club model has diversified into wellness retreats, hobby-specific societies and social clubs.
London remains the private members’ club capital of the world. Many of its older institutions began as places where aristocrats, politicians, military officers and businessmen could eat, drink and socialise away from the public view. Their appeal rested heavily on pedigree, hierarchy and exclusivity, with membership often determined as much by who you knew as what you could afford.
The modern generation has softened the edges, if not the principle. Soho House, founded in London in 1995, helped recast the private club for the creative industries, replacing jacket-and-tie formality with sofas, rooftop pools, laptops and cocktails. The formula proved highly exportable. New York has since embraced the model with particular enthusiasm, and the city now has a growing crop of clubs aimed at overlapping tribes: finance, fashion, art, tech and hospitality.
Estimates put the number of clubs in London north of 130, roughly double the 1985 total; industry advisers suggest more clubs have opened in the past five years than in the previous three decades combined.
The young guns
Today, groups like Soho House and The Ned have turned membership into something closer to a lifestyle subscription: co-working by day, restaurant and bar by night, spa and gym on the side, and a steady calendar of talks, screenings and parties. Younger professionals, creatives and entrepreneurs are drawn less by pedigree than by convenience, networking and a curated sense of belonging.
The appeal is partly practical. In dense cities where apartments are small and restaurants crowded, a club becomes an extension of home and office: somewhere you can spend hours without repeatedly negotiating a table, a bill or a departure time. For frequent travellers, the international networks add another layer of attraction — familiarity in an unfamiliar city and, theoretically at least, instant access to a community.
Soho House grew from 30 properties in 2021 to 41 by mid-2023, with membership surpassing 176,000. Elsewhere, hospitality groups including Major Food Group and Cipriani have moved into private clubs, while established operators are expanding internationally.
Part of the explanation is economic. City-centre hospitality has been squeezed by rents, changing drinking habits and a cost-of-living crisis. Against that backdrop, a club charging an annual fee upfront offers predictable recurring revenue in an otherwise volatile trade.
Many newer entrants are backed by private equity and hospitality investors who see them as scalable, brand-driven assets. Membership businesses are also sensitive to downturns, since a club subscription is one of the easier discretionary expenses to cut when budgets tighten.
There’s a cultural tension here too. Many clubs market themselves on community, creativity and openness — a conscious break from the stuffy image of the old establishments. But the basic mechanism hasn’t changed: a fee and a selection process that keeps most people out. Critics have pointed out the irony of a generation uncomfortable with inequality paying thousands a year for the privilege of exclusion, even if the walls are now made of glass rather than mahogany.
For now, appetite for the idea shows little sign of slowing. What began as a revival of old club culture has become something closer to an integrated lifestyle ecosystem spanning hospitality, real estate and community-building. It reflects a shift in how affluent households are spending — less on material goods, more on experiences built around community, wellness and recreation.
Wallace hopes there will be more such openings — possibly in Joburg, Nairobi, or other vibrant hubs on the continent.
