At the start of 2025, Bengaluru opened its doors to a women-only space on the bustling Bannerghatta Road. India’s first exclusive club for women, Miss and Mrs opened to much fanfare with influencers and lifestyle content creators raving about a space where they could let their hair down without worrying about the ‘male gaze’. Features like a DJ, nail art services, unlimited beer and snacks at competitive price points were thrown in for good measure.
“It’s more about not having to mingle or share the space with people you don’t want to. In this case, men,” writes a netizen on the bar’s launch video.
A few comments put an expiry date on the idea and called it unsustainable but the concept has not been lost on the hospitality sector.
Going out for a meal, a drink or a casual hang-out, has always been about meeting and sharing space with like-minded people. In a conventional restaurant, it is the crowds coming together on the choice of cuisine, vibe and price point. In new-age hospitality ventures, it’s also about the social demographics.
About a month and a half ago, Delhi’s first Aztec bar opened its doors but not to everyone. Mamma Killa is like any other bar generously dotting Mehrauli overlooking the Qutub. Only it takes the “right to admission reserved” policy far too seriously and strictly. The guest-list has to be pre-approved, starts small and grows through referrals. There is another social policy that members have to abide by — no photographs. Perhaps, a breather for a large pool of audience annoyed by the all-pervading influencers and social media enthusiasts with an impulse to document everything for the social feeds.
Colonial era clubs continue …the legacy, the guest-list
Membership-based bar concepts have survived and thrived in India since the colonial era; old bastions like Gymkhana and Delhi Golf Club being a strong case in point. However, with the waitlist to these clubs running into four decades, which is literally more than one and a half generation, the new crop of young entrepreneurs, professionals and artists neither have the time nor the patience to be let into the old power centres. One of the early starters in the sector The Quorum which describes itself as the “urban lifestyle club” started in Gurgaon in 2018, a few years later in Mumbai in 2021 and last year, the third Quorum opened in Hyderabad. Given the Capital’s penchant for exclusivity, Delhi makes perfect sense for testing waters with the concept.
Also read: What does a Labubu doll say about this generation?
This year in February, The Luxe League, which positions itself as a premier social club, did the customary grand launch at Le Meridien, Connaught Place with the page 3 invitees heavily dotting the event. “We’re devoted to creating a high-end setting where similar-minded couples can meet, match, and form significant connections,” reasoned Kanishka Gupta, the co-founder, on the need for such a space.
Is this concept here to stay?
If the humble beginnings and heady but steady global success of Soho House is anything to go by, then yes the members-only clubs have willing and loyal takers. The concept may not take off right away and find figures and numbers to match the mainstream hospitality figures, but that’s the whole idea.
History is testament to the tried and tested idea. In the late 19th century the British officers needed a recluse from the sweltering heat, a private-club away from the crowds. With that need and mindset The Bombay Gymkhana came into being in 1875. Royal Calcutta Golf Club was already there, the concept widely replicated to several other similar places in no time. Two centuries later, the demographics have shifted but the need to retreat with like-minded individuals remains.
A civilisation of fine dining restaurants, bars, designer boutiques dot several pockets of Delhi; Khan market, Mehrauli, Hauz Khas, as do the high net-worth individuals in the wake of India’s IT and start-up boom. They all need a place to retreat, a little private, luxe and experiential. Hospitality industry is more than happy to experiment.
Follow us
