In clubland there's no hype like no hype at all
The first rule of Milk and Honey Club if that you don’t talk about Milk and Honey Club. Another rule of Milk and Honey Club is that you don’t even talk about fighting. Indeed, in a time when most clubs will do anything to generate publicity, this one is so secret that even its members can’t always find it.
The organisers of the club have already caused a stir among the painfully trendy-conscious in New York City. Last week they opened a central London branch in a black hole of anti-publicity.
Hidden behind an anonymous garage-like façade on Soho St, the club has no number, sign or even a visible door. It was designed by Odd and is the brainchild of New York-based barman Sasha Petraske and London entrepreneur Jonathan Downey, who already owns the successful Match bar chain.
And then there are those rule: no “hooting, hollering or shouting,” no “fighting or talking about fighting” and no wearing of hats. Gentlemen are forbidden to introduce themselves to ladies, and there is absolutely no “name-dropping or starfucking.”
Guests have to phone in advance, and enter the candlelit bar via a double set of dark velvet curtains. Jazz plays quietly in the background, and cocktails are the order of the day. “It seems really contrived but it’s actually very practical,” said Petraske, 29, who opened Milk and Honey New York in January 2000.
“I got really sick of bartending for people who just got drunk and acted like children – people who expect to have their mess cleared up by somebody else.
“It’s about returning to the respect of our grandparents’ generation,” he said, a little fancifully. “Something got lost in our parents’ era: the baby got thrown out with the baby water. We‘re just trying to re-raise the standard.
Petraske’s Manhattan venue is hidden behind a derelict tailor’s shop on the Lower East Side and changes its phone number on a frequent basis to deny access o those who have broken the rules. High-profile victims have reportedly included Quentin Tarantino.
“People assume it’s exclusive,” Downey said, “but it’s not. The door policy is very democratic: the tables go to whoever called first.”
The best way to get everyone talking about it, of course, is to tell them no to, and the London venue has already gained 100 members by word of mouth. With Dale DeGroff, America’s celebrity “bar chef”, arriving next week, and chef Shaun Rowlands poached from The Ivy restaurant, the owners predict their list will be full by June.
Laura Abrahams, editor of the CrushGuide to London bars and clubs, admitted she walked past the venue twice before actually finding it. “Just because it worked in New York doesn’t mean it will work here,” she said.
“But people love exclusivity, and etiquette is big business”.
“There is definitely a market for what they’re trying to do. It’s incredibly difficult to find somewhere nice and relaxed to drink in Soho – everything’s either heaving or horrific. I suspect it will be difficult to keep a place like this secret.”
Which of course, is surely the whole point.
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