Gabé Doppelt was born in South Africa, raised in London, worked in New York and became the ultimate L.A. power broker — first as the maître d’ at Jeff Klein’s Sunset Tower, then as the global membership director at his San Vicente Clubs. She began her professional life as an assistant for legendary media maven Tina Brown at Tatler in 1979. She then made her way to New York and eventually bounced between the coasts as an editor for Vogue, W, Mademoiselle and The Daily Beast, finally leaving media in 2014 for a career in hospitality.
She returned to Manhattan last year to oversee the launch of SVC’s West Village outpost, in the former Jane Hotel. It was meant to be an eight-month gig. “Within a week of landing in New York, which by the way was in the middle of a snowstorm, I knew there was no way I was going back,” explains Doppelt.
It’s a good thing she settled in so quickly because the task facing Klein and crew required full focus: San Vicente West Village opened last March in a redbrick building built in 1908, fresh out of a massive overhaul. Steered by designer Rose Uniacke, the club features a restaurant (with head chef Nicholas Ugliarolo), drawing room, sushi room, disco, billiard room, screening room and nine well-appointed rooms and suites. To say the opening was warmly embraced is an understatement. The New York Times reported that it was “greeted with a sense of urgency that is second only to the future of democracy.”
“Opening a club in New York is quite intense because New Yorkers certainly let you know when they’re not happy. They’re a little more forgiving in L.A.,” says Doppelt. “Any new property has the same problems; things you think will go well don’t and things you think are going to be a shit show are always perfect. That’s the nature of the beast in any business.”
The first three months were a blur. She landed in New York, and the next night, the club opened exclusively for an afterparty for SNL50: The Homecoming Concert, a star-packed celebration attended by Lady Gaga, Cher, Jason Momoa, Anya Taylor-Joy, Donna Langley, Bryan Lourd and Lorne Michaels. “We hit the ground running,” Doppelt recalls. “The next night we hosted a hardhat party for existing members and friends so people could see the club even though it wasn’t finished. Then we went dark for a month to finish all the aesthetics. We opened in March and it took three months to find our rhythm.”
A year later, San Vicente West Village is in its groove. As global membership director, Doppelt curates who gets in and she borrows a quote from her boss to explain how they anoint new members. “We’re slow growers. It’s very easy to be greedy and we could take everybody who applies and we would be, I don’t know about successful, but we’d be rich,” she says. “Success isn’t measured in rich. There’s a great quote of Jeff’s that goes, ‘Just because you’re rich, that makes you interesting?’ We don’t care about that. For us, power isn’t money and that’s the last thing we’re looking for.”
Her old editorial chops also kicked in. Her cheeky, “quasi-monthly” in-house newsletter has been such a hit with members, it may be worth the price of entry. (Initiation fees range from $3,000 to $15,000, with annual dues of $1,800 to $4,200.) In her notes “from The Directrice,” she updates insiders on the club’s comings and goings — literally: “A member jettisoned for yelling out to a high-profile VIP very much in the news right now, ‘Hey XX, is that really you?’ ” reads one. “We pride ourselves on respecting every member’s privacy so there were no second chances here. Bye.”
Doppelt’s unvarnished missives were inspired by New York restaurateur Keith McNally, who posts his nightly reports to much fanfare on Instagram. “It’s really funny and brutally honest,” she praises. “He really calls people out and he doesn’t edit.”
Doppelt’s started as personal notes but she grew boring of writing about herself and noticed how members liked tattling on one another. So, she started doing it, too. Her epic Valentine’s Day rant had tongues wagging for weeks. “To the two members who, on multiple occasions found your way to a higher floor bathroom between courses for an ‘amuse bouche,’ the literal translation being a ‘mouth amuser’ … we know who you are. … Please note we do have rooms, and as members, you receive the reduced member rate, so please check with the front desk if you feel the need to indulge in extracurricular activities while in the club.” The horny members did not lose their memberships, since Doppelt prefers to discipline with suspensions or warnings.
Thanks in part to Doppelt’s methods and long-standing relationships, SVC has become one of, if not the hottest private club in New York. And it’s got Doppelt and Klein already thinking about what’s next: “Of course we’re ravenously hungry to do another.”
But where? First, Doppelt has extended her New York stay for at least another year and after that, she won’t say. “We love New York. We love Europe. Maybe London, maybe Paris. We don’t know. We love buildings. So, wherever we find the next crumbling old lady.”
This story appeared in the May 6 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
