Arianna Leggiero
Walking into The Sandstones Club by Florence Guild in Sydney’s historic Department of Lands building feels like arriving at a five-star hotel. There’s a liveried doorman and concierge welcome, corridors sprinkled with Australian artworks and immaculately restored original details, including marble fireplaces and 19th-century furniture.
Instead of dealing in overnight stays, though, The Sandstones Club – where annual membership hovers around $30,000 – is Australia’s latest addition to the world of members’ clubs, integrating high-end hospitality and contemporary corporate culture. Far removed from scenes of Chesterfields and crystal decanters, or the aromas of cigar smoke and superiority, these new exclusive spaces encourage mingling between disciplines, diversity of values and a conscious push towards a balanced representation of men and women.
“I don’t want 100 per cent white, arrogant males – I don’t want wankers,” says Florence Guild founder, Danish-born Soren Trampedach, who opened his first Work Club, in Sydney, in 2013. “If a member comes in and is not aligned to the community we’ve built, the organism spits them out.” As we wander the club, which occupies two levels of The Lands by Capella, the founder repeatedly refers to the community as an organism; a living, breathing unit with its own beating heart.
Florence Guild’s Work Clubs – of which The Sandstones Club is an elevated cousin – offer members-only bars alongside casual lounges, shared working spaces and private offices, and wellness facilities, all with a mission to deliver members “optimised living” – and exploring what that really means. “We’ve always been hospitality-focused,” says Trampedach. “It’s about experiences and creating community, whether it’s in a restaurant or the members’ bar.”
The Sandstones Club centres around the Piano Lounge: a stately room with a raw stone bar, library shelves, casual seating areas and a dedicated dining space. A sample menu lists an Oscietra caviar service (caviar is a superfood, after all…), duck liver parfait with accompaniments, and an artisan biltong collection. Menus from Florence Guild’s newly opened Italian restaurant, Spezia, are available in the space too. Set among the building’s arched carriageways and courtyards, Spezia joins Melbourne restaurant Freyja and cocktail bar Valhalla in the group’s portfolio of public-facing establishments. Freyja opened in 2022 in the revamped Victorian-era Olderfleet precinct, which is also home to a level-35 Work Club. Both restaurants offer non-members “a chance to touch the edge of the organism,” says Trampedach.
He credits executive chef Jae Bang (El Bulli, Arzak in San Sebastián, and Daniel and the Waldorf Astoria in New York) with leading the group’s food and beverage arm. “Jae bought into the ecosystem of what we do,” says Trampedach. “His approach to hospitality is all about sustainability, not just in the sense of environment, but relationships with suppliers and team members.”
The first Australian branch of international fine wine club 67 Pall Mall, boasting the most expansive wine selection in the country, is due to open its first phase later this year. Founded in London in 2015 by reformed financier Grant Ashton, 67 Pall Mall now spans Verbier and Singapore, with Bordeaux, Beaune and Shanghai clubs in development. Its members-only restaurants and bars in Melbourne will be steered by chef Martin Benn and Vicki Wild (Tetsuya’s, Sepia, Society). “We’re keen to ensure that we’re operating at the highest end of hospitality,” says 67 Pall Mall’s Australia general manager Sam Herde. “Working with Martin and Vicki was key in that vision.”
When the four-storey club is in full swing, it will have a casual club room listing 1000 wines by the glass from a 16,000-bottle cellar. Upstairs, a modern grill restaurant will operate alongside a glitzy seafood bar (which will also host breakfast) with an outdoor terrace, while the crowning layer will be a rooftop bar specialising in rare whiskies and cocktails. “Martin will tap into his background with Japanese-influenced dining, so there’ll be a focus on raw seafood and oysters,” explains Herde.
As well as offering wine lovers the chance to engage at regular events including tastings, masterclasses and BYO dinners, 67 Pall Mall encourages ongoing discovery and education; the most affordable membership ($1750 annually, plus $2250 joining fee – for now) is for wine industry professionals. Fostering talent in-house is also a goal, says Herde: “We want to have a front-of-house team comprised of sommeliers, and Martin will be training Australia’s next generation of top chefs, moving them through the four kitchens.”
Also with roots in London, Soho House returned to private ownership in January, the US$2.7 billion deal encompassing the operation of its global locations, including Tokyo which opened in July. This year, the brand (which courts creatives and is known for its celeb-friendly no-photos policy and spicy Margaritas) will introduce sites in Milan, Los Cabos, its first ranch in Sonoma and several additional properties in New York state. Australia’s first Soho House is due to open in Sydney’s Surry Hills in 2028 and, while details are slim, it’s slated to incorporate a bar, restaurant and cabaret room. Whether they’ll be publicly accessible – like oceanfront restaurant Scorpios in Mykonos, or purely for members like the Nancy Silverton-led restaurant The Garden at the West Hollywood location – remains under wraps. A Melbourne site is being scouted, too.
In the Sydney CBD, members of the 2025-launched club The Pillars enjoy a $3000 credit at the Bentley Restaurant Group’s venue Eleven Barrack, on the ground floor, with their annual fee of around $20,000. Upstairs, members dine on menus by executive chef Chris Lees (Frantzen in Stockholm, Quay, Printhie Wines) and are attended to by a team led by general manager Kieron Hunt (The Murray Hong Kong, Shangri-La Group, Kokomo Private Island), both of whom were appointed this year as the club overhauled its hospitality arm.
“Private members’ clubs are defined by the details,” Hunt said in a statement. “Dining is one of the most powerful ways we bring members together, and Chris’s philosophy of thoughtful, produce-driven cooking perfectly reflects the environment we are creating.” On- and off-site events programming also leans heavily into premium hospitality experiences like whisky tastings, high-end wine dinners, caviar education sessions and Champagne vintage launches.
Beyond their food and beverage focus, the new clutch of members’ clubs in Australia is also reinventing what it means to be exclusive when many of the country’s oldest are ostensibly struggling with notions of progress. The Australian Club (the oldest of its kind in the country) voted against accepting female members in 2021. At Sydney’s women-only Queen’s Club “denim… is not permitted at any time in the public rooms”, and the 1894-founded Melbourne Savage Club does not allow the use of mobile phones on the premises.
“Australia hasn’t really adopted the more progressive members’ clubs that you find overseas, so a lot of the misgivings are particular to the Aussie market,” says Herde, pointing instead to the unifying ethos at 67 Pall Mall. “You don’t have to come from a private school background, you don’t have to have achieved a certain level of success. What’s wonderful about that is you can walk into one of our events and ask anyone what’s in their glass? What have they been drinking lately?” Just over a year after opening, the average age of a member at The Pillars is 45, and around 40% are women.
As Florence Guild continues to expand, Trampedach says developing a hospitality-focused forum for conversation and education, inspired by his Danish compatriot, Noma founder and chef René Redzepi’s MAD Symposium, is also in the works. “[It will] be a place where all stakeholders in hospitality can come and learn – investors, operators, suppliers. We want to bring people together.”
