This morning, Anne and I got together with some friends for brunch, as you will of an ocassional Sunday. This time we went to a place called the ClubHouse, in Oak Brook IL. This was a nice occasion, whose slight flaws didn't detract from the enjoyment, but did from the holistic illusion...

The ClubHouse is a designed restaurant space, like so many (see Cheesecake Factory, many Lettuce Entertain You restaurants, etc). They pull off the design impeccably. It's supposed to be based on a country club experience - clean and neat staff, cushy comfy chairs, lots of dark wood and ambience. And it has all that. The bathrooms have full-height and heavy doors, the fixtures are all solid and seemingly both well made and (the touch of elegance, actually) well maintained. The furniture was all heavy, the serving plates and silver nicely crafted. The food was nice, the service attentive, and all things seemed wonderful. Except for the one flaw that tweaked the experience.

They insisted on marketing themselves too heavily. They have some sort of "ClubHouse Club" where you get discounts and merchandising awareness sent to you. They pitched it - the waitron we had actually said "I have one thing more that I have to tell you about" - before and after the meal. I know the important aspect of any business is not so much the gathering of custom but the repetition of it - the attention paid to "same store sales" and the rest is not lost on me. But to do so in this venue is, frankly, out of keeping with the implied (albeit ersatz) character of the place. The hallmark of a club is not the existence of it, but the quiet exclusivity of it. You know you're in, the others on the in know you're in. But you don't advertise how cool it is to be in.

It's too bad. It won't keep us from going back, but it just exemplified the "so close, so very close, and yet so far" nature of it.

Overall a good experience, and recommended if you're not likely to brood upon the subtlest flaws.

Posted by esinclai at February 03, 2002 03:46 PM |