Industry Insiders: Tamsin Lonsdale, Supper Clubber

Supper Club's jetsetting Brit Tamsin Lonsdale makes introductions, keeps secrets, and detoxes poolside at Soho House after a rough weekend in Ibiza.

Point of Origin: I went to University in Edinburgh and every birthday party, I’d organize a celebration in our house, a mansion, a house by the water. So that’s where I got my taste for hosting events and getting all my friends together for music and dancing. In 2004 I was a fashion stylist in London doing styling for rock bands, new talent for Creation, the record company, and that was fun. I’d style a lot of the music videos but it wasn’t fulfilling work and it wasn’t like working for myself. I started hosting these dinners and they were really successful.

A lot of people wanted to come. It got really popular, and I had to make the decision between staying as a stylist or doing my supper club. I decided to set up on my own and set it up as a company. After about a year of running it organically, alongside with fashion styling, I set up a website and I wanted to trademark the name, but the “Dinner Club” was already taken so I took “Supper Club.” I charged people membership fees to join. I hosted about 15 events per month, we were really busy. Sometimes, I’d do three events in one night. I did different categories of events. I did gay night, I did nights for people in their twenties, in their thirties. I had a lot going on. I decided two years later to expand to New York.

Why New York? New York is somewhere I always wanted to live. I traveled here as a fashion stylist, and I’d always wanted to be here, and suddenly I had a company that I could take here. I honestly felt that New Yorkers would love the idea, and that it would be a big success. I had a lot of feedback from members who went to New York who wanted me to take it there as well. A lot of times, I would e-mail a member to come to an event and they wouldn’t be able to because they were in New York. So I went out here and spent a year researching the market, meeting with people, interviewing people, meeting with press companies. I found an amazing girl to help set it up with me, who worked at Soho House as a consultant. So we did it together and launched it, and a year later, I now have 300 members in New York, 300 in London and growing. We take on about 10 members a month.

Are you guys doing anything for Art Basel? We might do something. It’d be nice to do a small dinner rather than do a big cocktail party. It’s good to have a presence there, but for me, I don’t want to compete with everything else going on.

Your main thing right now is Supper Club NY, Supper Club London, and you do separate events in LA., Miami. Are those the only cities? My plan in the future is to take Supper Club global. I want to take it LA next, and then Dubai, and then Paris. My idea is to set up a Supper Club in every major metropolitan city around the world. A greater community of people that can meet up in that city or another city they visit.

Like aSmallWorld? Like a smaller aSmallWorld. It has been compared to aSmallWorld. We have the online member aspect to it. If you’re a member, you have a profile.

Really? But it’s only like 300 people. So yeah, like a mini aSmallWorld. But aSmallWorld doesn’t really do events for their members. And I’m at every event hosting it, and I know everybody by name. If you come to a dinner, I do a seating plan where I sit you next to somebody you should meet, that I think you’d get on well with.

What kinds of people are your members? Our members work in different industries. Property, fashion, film, media, finance.

Who are some of your associates, then? What I do with Supper Club is I have an ambassador program. When I launched in October last year, I invited 16 friends, contacts, notables in New York to become ambassadors. What the ambassadors do is they host a dinner party with me and invite all of their friends, well, not all of their friends—their favorite friends, best contacts—to come to dinner. People such as Jennifer Missoni, Alexa Wilding, Hilary Rowland, Flavia Masson, Heather Tierney, Susan Shin, Jim Kloiber, Keren Eldad, Richie Rich, Kate Lanphear, Duncan Quinn.

Are you affiliated with Soho Housee in any way or is just a base? I have an office in Soho but I take all my meetings here. It’s easier I think, and it’s nice.

Where do you like to hang out? Other than Soho House. Soho House is great in the day. I love coming here during the summer. In the evening, I would choose to hang out elsewhere. Norwood, which is another private members club. Mole, the Mexican restaurant in the Lower East Side. Anywhere in the Lower East, any of those bars. GoldBar, I like. The Box, I love. Highbar is quite fun. I like Nolita. I love the restaurants around there. Ruby’s for lunch, Public for dinner—the food is fantastic. I love La Esquina. I love anything Mexican, it’s my favorite. Bond St. is great ... I love the sushi there even though I don’t sushi. I eat the vegetarian sushi. Bobo, I love Bobo. Il Buco ... so many good places. We work with all of Andre Balazs’ hotels in LA, Miami, and New York to give our members preferential rates.

Industry Icons: I guess I admire Simon Hammerstein. I went to school with him. He’s a friend of mine, I haven’t seen him in ages, but I really admire what he’s done. He’s taken his dream and he’s created something unique and different—in New York—that has longevity even though it’s so small and unique. It’s amazing. And everybody wants to go.

I don’t want to go. Have you been?

I’m kidding. Upcoming projects. What do you have in the works? I’m hosting an event at Apothecary, this new bar in Chinatown that you must come to on the 27th.

I live in Chinatown. Actually, I’m not going to say anything about that.

Why not? Apothecary you say? Where is it? No, I’m not going to tell.

This interview is over! We’re going in the pool. Where is it? What street? Come to the event and then you can discover. I don’t want you to write about it because the owner is my friend and she wants to keep it a secret as long as possible.

Really? That’s going to be impossible. There’s a new thing called the Internet. But anyway ... We’re doing something in the Hamptons for Halloween. We’re doing a Halloween in the Hamptons. We’re doing a murder mystery. We’ve acquired a big house in South Hampton. It’s a 16th-century house, really old. It’s got 20 bedrooms, so we’re inviting 20 members to come, and everybody gets to bring a guest, and everybody gets into character, so they come in theme. Somebody gets killed. It’s fun. I’m looking forward to it.

What are you doing tonight? Tonight, I’m going to Kiki de Montparnasse for a cocktail party. Then I’m going to this new bar in Chinatown.

Which is located where? I don’t know, actually. It’s top secret.

It’s not the fucking Eldridge is it? No, it’s not the Eldridge. But tell me about the Eldridge, I read about it on Page Six. Is it really good?

What did it say on Page Six? It said that Kate Moss and Richie Rich are regulars there, but then Richie said he’d never been, so ...

It’s all hype—all media hype. Some kid from Long Island opened it I think. But I’m basically juice detoxed for the moment and I have to make it an early night because I can’t drink and eat.

So you’re going to go out in a make-believe bar in Chinatown, and you’re not going to drink? What kind of drugs do you have? I don’t take drugs. I’m a clean living kind of girl.

Interview is over, then, you’re going in the pool. How did I do?

Fantastic. Was it fantastic?

Brilliant.