It’s been nearly a year (!) since Maxwell Social finished construction on the former China Blue (nee Capsouto Frères) space on Washington and Watts, and nearly three since I first got a tour from co-founder David Litwak — so to say I am catching up is a bit of a farce. Still, it’s an amazing space and not open to any passerby, so very much better late than never.

I will start by saying that there has been some recent pushback from neighbors, and while I watched the Community Board 1 Licensing Committee meeting, I couldn’t really tolerate the he-said-she-said — and the complaints did not make a lot of sense given that there has been a restaurant there for decades — so I will just report this: they have a liquor license and the FDNY and DEP found no violations when they were called in.

The concept is borrowed from Italian social clubs, where members use it for anything from stopping by to have a drink after work to throwing parties or meeting friends at the tail end of the night. The membership goal is 700; when I saw the finished space last April, right after they opened officially, they were at 200 so likely much higher by now — the goal was to double in a year. At that time, they were building slowly, meeting potential members multiple times and in the meantime hosting events: a fundraiser for Reade Street Prep, shabbat dinners, business launch parties. David would not fill me in on the rubric other than to say that they are looking to make it a diverse and interesting group. “Just because it’s private,” David said, “doesn’t mean it’s exclusive.”

There are many ways to use the space, and they can host 30 to 40 people for dinner in the garden room. They have a catered brunch on weekends. The other two kitchens are more like bars, but with service areas for food. The club will sell bottles, and for an extra fee members can store their booze in lockers. The staffing will be minimal — but there will be someone there to do the dishes. At this point the schedule includes Monday night dinners for 10 with a chef; clubwide “family” dinners cooked by members; the “salons,” such as Nate Silver speaking on the 2024 election; club-wide parties for holidays like Halloween; and trip planning for ski weekends and summer camps.

The basic rate for the year is $3000; hours are 6 to 11p Monday to Thursday, 6p to 1a on Friday, 9a to 1a on Saturday and Sunday 9a to 6p.

“People want to be able to curate their own social events and meet friends and friends of friends,” David said. “They don’t prioritize service as much as everyone thinks they do. They don’t need someone to open their Heineken for them.”

So the showstopper is the decor: it is what David called a British maximalist design aesthetic and that is no joke. You have not seen a space like this south of Canal since maybe the Downtown Association or the New York Athletic Club. There are murals, antiques (often found on First Dibs), elaborate lighting installations, hand-painted wallpaper — and much of it dedicated to the life of socialite and gossip columnist Elsa Maxwell, who reigned the NYC scene in the ’30s and ’40s.

There are three themed rooms: the Explorer Room, the Grand Room and the Garden Room, with lighting from Visual Comfort and a studio in London as well as a custom chandeliers in the style of German Art Deco, with hammered metal leaves. The design team found oil paintings at auctions, a reception desk found online in Belgium and shipped overseas, copper pots from France. It’s a lot, but it works in that the space feels like it always looked that way. Almost everything you see that is fixed was created by hand by artisans.

Of course one room is accessed by a door disguised as a bookcase.

Surprisingly they do not seem like they are in a rush to fill out the membership rolls. “We are a very personal club — full of people who actually know each other,” David said. “It’s an arduous process, but it’s worth it.”