IT COSTS $100K JUST TO GET IN THE DOOR AT THIS LUXE MEMBERS-ONLY RESTAURANT

An ultra-extravagant spot to sip martinis, feast on cream-of-the-crop meat, and order caviar service quietly opened in D.C. last weekend — but chances are, you’ll never get to go.

Downtown’s hotly anticipated Ned’s Club Washington D.C. opened on Friday, January 31 with four distinctive dining establishments: The Library (day-to-night cocktail bar), The Gallery and the Conservatory (Italian), Kaia (rooftop sushi), and Founders Dining Room (American grill).

Soho House’s elite new sibling club takes up the three upper floors of an Art Deco-era building that formerly housed iconic institutions Riggs Bank and American Security and Trust Company (734 15th Street NW).

Unlike the other opening restaurants and bars, the Founders Dining Room is only accessible to Ned’s Club “founding global members” — a by-invitation tier with a whopping $100,000 initiation fee and $15,000 in monthly dues. (In comparison, normal Ned’s Club members pay $5,000 upfront and $5,000 per year.) There are currently 100 members of the ultra-exclusive group that currently has a waitlist, per a rep.

To justify the price tag, Founders Dining Room’s menu boasts prime beef from Texas’s famed Four Sixes — a fourth-generation ranch raising purebred Angus Black Baldys. The only other U.S. restaurant that serves it is the Four Sixes Steakhouse pop-up inside the Wynn Las Vegas. The Holy Grail of cow shows up in D.C. as a filet, (bone-in) ribeye, A5 wagyu, and New York strip, as well as a braised short rib entree topped with black truffles.

The surf-and-turf spread includes starters like lobster bisque, shrimp cocktail, and caviar-topped oysters alongside mains like roasted half chicken with duck-fat potatoes, Virginia trout, and whole lobster dusted with Old Bay.

Views couldn’t be more D.C. The Founders Room directly overlooks the U.S. Treasury and the Washington Monument. And “there is no other restaurant in D.C. that has that close of a view to the White House,” per a rep, which means catching a glimpse of its newest resident eating his McDonald’s dinner is quite possible.

The U.S. Treasury is also making big headlines this week because Trump’s billionaire buddy Elon Musk just got unprecedented access to the federal agency’s payment system. It’s unclear whether Musk has any connection to the baller new membership club across from the White House. (Eater is still tracking his plans to potentially still take over the Adams Morgan Line hotel and turn it into a social club of his own.)

The Founders Dining Room’s design embraces a very different presidential era. The midcentury look pays tribute to the elegant Kennedy years of the 1960s, complete with Tiffany-esque stained glass windows, a golden canopy of circular pendant lights, and private martini bar.

Applications for the top-level membership tier will reopen sometime this year. Founding Global Members can also call dibs on their own “regular” table in the room and enjoy “high-end” customized perks based on their known preferences every time they dine.

It’s hard not to draw comparisons to downtown’s BLT Prime, the now-closed Trump hotel steakhouse where the then-45th president had his own booth reserved at all times and waiters followed a ridiculous instruction manual on how he likes his Diet Coke poured in seven steps. Ned’s Club chef David Testa chef most recently led the kitchen at The Bazaar by José Andrés, which replaced BLT Prime a year ago. Renowned mixologist and Silver Lyan alum Vlad Novikov leads the two bars at Ned’s Club.

Ned’s Club, birthed in 2017 by a pair of Soho House bigwigs as “a space for the discerning” in London, went on to expand to NYC and Qatar’s capital of Doha in 2022. The fourth edition in D.C. is its first club-only location that caters exclusively to members.

2025-02-04T17:46:33Z