Taste Club
Taste Club, the first-of-its-kind national dining & global luxury travel club, is supported by a best-in-class concierge team, and all are poised to launch in May 2023.
Benefiting nonprofits in the hospitality industry, and committed to championing independent restaurants, Taste Club is partnering with a Who’s Who of celebrated chefs across the country.
Memberships provide access to exclusive dining experiences curated by each of the celebrated chefs/restaurant partners. In addition, members will enjoy access to bespoke luxury travel experiences: insider access to premier events, elite accommodations, with memorable culinary experiences. When membership is approved, members will have direct access to the Taste Club concierge platform to book their first dining and/or travel experience.
LazyBear/Taste Club
Taste Club also utilizes state-of-the-art technology to offer transferable memberships, allowing members the ability to share their membership benefits with friends, family, and colleagues, giving them all full access to Taste Club’s suite of services.
Memberships are priced at $7,500 for a one-time initiation fee, with monthly dues of $300. Due to the high-touch, personalized nature of the Taste Club offerings, enrollment is limited and requires a process to determine eligibility. Taste Club has already launched an online application process for those interested in the opportunity to purchase membership.
Taste Club was conceptualized by hospitality veteran Joshua Kopel, formerly President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the California Restaurant Association. Keenly aware of the challenges that face independent restaurants, he is dedicated to connecting those looking for culinary and travel experiences with chefs and travel experts
Mister Jiu Restaurant/Taste Club
Taste Club Chef Partners
Taste Club members will have preferred access to an expanding portfolio of awards-winning chefs and restaurants across the country. Taste Club chefs are not only celebrated by the Michelin Guide and the James Beard Foundation, but are leaders in their culinary specialties and communities, and are eager to utilize their partnership with Taste Club to create one-of-a-kind experiences for their guests.
Recently, Taste Club announced their 12 founding chef partners:
• Jose´ Andre´s / e´ by Jose´ Andre´s / Las Vegas
• Michael Anthony / Gramercy Tavern / New York
• Rick Bayless / Topolobampo / Chicago
• David Barzelay / Lazy Bear / San Francisco
• Katianna Hong & John Hong / Yangban / Los Angeles
• Aisha Ibrahim / Canlis / Seattle
• Brandon Jew / Mister Jiu’s / San Francisco
• Jordan Kahn / Meteora / Los Angeles
• Walter Manzke & Margarita Manzke/ Mankze / Los Angeles
• Wolfgang Puck / Spago / Beverly Hills
• Melissa Rodriguez / Al Coro / New York
• Jeremiah Stone & Fabia´n von Hauske Valtierra / Contra / New York
Kristen Teig/Manzke Restaurant
Travel Tastemakers
Kopel and Taste Club have assembled a dream team of luxury travel experts to add unparalleled value to memberships. Understanding how integral dining and culinary experiences are to travel, the team has designed an ever-evolving collection of on-demand travel experiences as well as insider access to premier events across the globe. Featured Tastemakers include:
• Hans & Maureen Paap / Co-Founder & Director of Hospitality at AOH Travel
• Leigh Rowan / Former COO of The Points Guy & Founder of Savanti Travel
• Michael Shane Stephens / Founder and Global Director of Curated Global Travel
Taste Club’s travel experts have curated one-of-a-kind luxury travel experiences, ranging from four nights in New York for the US Tennis Open men’s and women’s finals, a Broadway show with a private cast reception, and an after-hours tour and dinner at MoMA, to a members-only buyout of the exclusive five-star Hacienda AltaGracia inclusive of daily activities with acclaimed Taste Club chefs, spa, and wellness treatments.
Gramercy Tavern/Taste Club
Non Profit Donations
The mission of Taste Club is to invest in the future of the hospitality industry through financial contributions to both non-profit organizations and restaurateurs that exemplify Taste Club’s core values of service to the industry and its communities. Taste Club has committed to donating over $1,000,000 to organizations that support the hospitality industry and unite people through food, the principal beneficiary being the James Beard Foundation.
“We are grateful to the Taste Club team for believing in our Good Food for Good mission and supporting our work through this very generous donation,” said Clare Reichenbach, CEO of the James Beard Foundation. “The funds will be directed towards our entire slate of impact programs—initiatives which provide critical support to the independent restaurant community, and which champion a more sustainable, equitable, and vital future for the food and beverage industry.”
Canlis Restaurant/Taste Club
Sustainability Partner Zero Foodprint
As the Taste Club network expands geographically, Founder Joshua Kopel is mindful of the impact that the organization has on the environment. Taste Club is a sustainable enterprise working to mitigate 100% of their carbon footprint. To that end, Taste Club has chosen the nonprofit organization Zero Foodprint as that partner. In support of ZFP’s mission to mobilize the food world around agricultural climate solutions, Taste Club will donate $50,000 to the organization who will supply those funds as grants to farmers using regenerative farming practices—proven to be the most impactful initiative yet towards solving global warming.
To apply for membership, visit www.taste.club Follow @tasteclublife on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Taste Club was launched in 2023 For more information, visit http://taste.club.
