2nd Homes Are For Hangs
What Central Perk and MacLarens teach us about community
Applications to the Summer ‘25 Cohort are open, apply to join!
I get asked a lot what my favorite event at Maxwell has been. I used to talk about the 80’s Apres Ski party with a cover band or about our intimate dinner series/salons, but recently I realized my favorite event is a non-event — just hanging out with the close friends of mine who are members.
On some level we understand that 2nd homes are made to be lived in, not “attended” — The fantasy of Friends was Central Perk where they spent most of their time just hanging around shooting the shit . . .
The fantasy of How I Met Your Mother was MacLarens, THEIR bar, THEIR booth.
Yes occasionally these characters went to other events of course, but the allure was the regular spot with a welcoming scene where they felt at home.
When we first started Maxwell we were very focused on what amazing events we could throw. We still aim to excel at our events of course, but a lot of our focus has shifted to how do we create the best “non-events,” or dare I say, the best “scene.”
I think many people like myself have a visceral reaction to the word “scene” — it evokes the nightlife-y, aggressively single peacocking type or the Soho House Instagram-In-IRL scene.
But that doesn’t mean all scenes are bad and we’ve tried to build a “social dinner party/Aperitivo full of friends” scene as we’ve evolved the club, a distinctive Maxwell down to earth scene.
That means less of a focus on what we can curate for members, top down, and more of a focus on how we can inspire usage of the space bottoms-up.
It means launching new initiatives — member leaders, those heading up our committees, have the privilege of hosting open bar happy hours on Fridays with other members, empowering them to act like “owners” of the space.
Every new member gets a free 10-person open bar, and ~1/5th of every member’s monthly fees goes towards credit in a custom POS system that we’ve built for members — all schemes to get members “living” in the space more regularly.
And we’ve launched our own little “coworking club” on Fridays — as much as I’ve been against Maxwell becoming a glorified co-working space, a regular intentional meet-up for our entrepreneurial members has its uses, and we now have a private chef every Friday with a simple menu of Pancakes only.
Slowly but surely we’re creating our own Central Perk/MacLarens, and for those of you who are looking for their own 2nd home, applications for Summer ‘25 Cohort are open!
David & The Maxwell Team