Forget Zero Bond or Soho House: New York’s most exclusive dinner club is comprised entirely of senior citizens.
Thirsty Gen Z influencers need not apply.
Restaurant Club is reserved for residents of the Watermark at Brooklyn Heights, a luxury retirement community catering to the over-65s, and each month, members leave their lavish digs to explore the Big Apple’s culinary scene.
Sampling foods from both up-and-coming eateries and some of the city’s most iconic, hard-to-reserve establishments — and building friendships in the process — keeps these adventurous seniors young at heart and loneliness at bay.
“It’s never too late to try new things,” member Mary Brown*, 73, told The Post, saying she sampled Ethiopian food for the first time during a recent outing to Clinton Hill.
“It’s new cuisines and new scenery,” fellow member Esther Goodman, 78, added. “That’s what we like.”
The group of gastronomes has dined at storied spots such as Brooklyn Crab and the Red Hook Lobster Pound, preferring to dissect a celeb chef’s latest innovations rather than settle for bland meatloaf and mashed potatoes. This month, Mediterranean was on the menu, and I — someone well under 65 — was lucky enough to score an invite into their lively world.
‘We started our Happy Hour at 3:45’
The daring diners met in the chandelier-lit lobby of the Watermark, a swanky 16-story building where monthly fees top $20,000 for residents who require “memory care” assistance.
At present, there are close to 150 residents, although only eight joined for this month’s Restaurant Club.
After bundling into a private bus, the Restaurant Club members headed to Mazzat, a cozy eatery near Cobble Hill, where they arrived just before 5:30 p.m.
After all, most seniors like to eat early, but it’s also a deliberate tactic of the Restaurant Club to ensure they command maximum attention from waitstaff.
“We started our Happy Hour at 3:45 p.m., and here we are,” Kellie Liberto, the Watermark’s Community Life Director, told The Post.
Liberto, who chaperones the groups on their various outings, said the Restaurant Club began in 2021 as a way for residents to re-explore the city after being cooped up amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It also helps forge connections between the seniors to help build resilience against loneliness.
“With every dinner, a new connection is made, and at the end of the day, that’s what it’s really all about,” she declared. “But great food doesn’t hurt either!”
‘Getting to know you’
As glasses were topped up with more wine, the group shared stories about their lives, getting to know each other on a deeper level.
Among the Restaurant Club members: former Staten Island physician Dr. Jerry Beeber, 84, and James and Ann Raimes, native Brits who met as grad students at Cornell in the 1960s.
Beyond the food, James Raimes discussed a Norman Podhoretz book with Goodman while Liberto said the community loved “Barbie” when they watched it during one of their twice-per-day movie screenings, one of many activities offered for residents.
Later this month, a group of residents will venture to Montauk where they scored a coveted reservation at celeb seafood hotspot Duryea’s, as well as the iconic Lobster Roll.
All the activities help stave off the loneliness that so many senior citizens feel. And during dinner, things got personal. The group candidly discussed their marriages, families and careers, in addition to the adjustment it took to move into a retirement community.
“Don’t be alone,” Beeber, who lost his wife of 52 years, told me. “It’s not good for you.”
“Right now, I’m going through a separation from my old life,” Brown said, recently relocating to the Watermark after selling her Brooklyn home. “It’s like getting a divorce.”
‘Don’t have any regrets’
Soon after, our plates were cleared away, and it was time for dessert.
“Get the tiramisu,” Beeber implored before I responded that I was trying to watch what I eat.
“It won’t hurt you,” he shot back.
Who was I to argue with a physician who had practiced for over 50 years? Loneliness: bad. Tiramisu: good.
I asked the other wise Restaurant Club members if they had any additional life advice for me, a 33-year-old still more than three decades off admittance age at the Watermark.
“It goes so fast,” Brown told me as she took a spoon to her ice cream. I couldn’t tell if she was talking about her dessert or about life itself. But maybe it was both.
“Don’t have any regrets. Just enjoy it.”
*Some names have been changed to honor requests for privacy.
