By Christine Gillette
cgillette@seacoastonline.com

PORTSMOUTH - Membership has its privileges, as the ad slogan goes.

For members of Portsmouth’s 100 Club, those privileges include use of the fifth-floor restaurant at 100 Market St., as well as concierge service and other benefits.

"They’re really investing in a hospitality organization," said Hopi Stradling, one of the partners in the 100 Club and its parent company, Mahalos. The other partners are Neil Gibb and Derek Sarno.

The club is a partnership of two businesses: 100 Market Group Ltd., which provides the space on the building’s top floor for the restaurant, and the hospitality and fine-dining talent behind Mahalos, successful caterers and restaurateurs, who run the club’s restaurant and provide its other services.

While 100 Market Group helped develop the club concept and market it, as well as serving as landlord, it is not a partner in the club. "It’s a very desirable tenant to have in the building," said Michael Simchik of 100 Market Group.

"The club has exclusive reservation use of the restaurant," explained Stradling.

The idea for the club was born after 100 Market Group realized that lending out its fifth-floor conference room for meetings and events was proving more complicated than anticipated.

"It just became a scheduling nightmare," Simchik said.

Aware of private clubs combining business and socializing exist in other cities like Boston and New York, Simchik decided to introduce the concept to Portsmouth.

"Then came the search for a group of restaurateurs and hospitality professionals" to run the club, Simchik said.

The idea arose around mid-2001, and Simchik connected with Stradling and the team at Mahalos, which does catering and operates a gourmet-to-go shop on Lafayette Road. From there, the restaurateurs developed the idea into the actual club, and did extensive renovations to the fifth-floor of 100 Market St. before opening the club last year.

What had been an attractive conference room was completely remodeled into a chic but comfortable dining room, with geometric designs in earth tones and deep metallic shades on the walls, with a coordinating wall-to-wall carpet. There’s a bar, an extensive wine vault in what had been office space, and a professional kitchen was added. Steps that lead out to a terrace overlooking downtown Portsmouth.

In warmer weather, there are tables on the terrace to allow outdoor dining for 25, and inside, there’s seating for 48 chairs that are both stylish and comfortable. A screen can be lowered from the ceiling for anything from PowerPoint presentations to movie night for members and their families. A lounge area is currently in the works, where members will be able to network or simply enjoy each other’s company.

"It’s just an opportunity to have a very casual atmosphere for members to come in and hang out," said Simchik, who is a club member.

The restaurant is open for dinner Wednesday through Saturday and Thursday and Friday for lunch, it is available for private functions outside those hours. Dinner during regular hours is a multi-course meal that includes appetizer, entree, dessert, and gourmet touches like an "amuse bouche," or small plate to start the meal, and an intermezzo or sorbet to cleanse the palate in between courses.

"It ends up being almost a six-course meal," said Stradling, adding that members who don’t want a full meal can enjoy just an appetizer.

"Coming here is not like coming to any restaurant," Simchik said, describing how Stradling, Gibb and the restaurant team, including chef Kurt Holzweiss, make a point of knowing which foods customers like and their dietary restrictions, as well as getting to know pace of how members like to enjoy dinner, whether they like the meal to move more quickly, or prefer to take a break between courses.

"It’s a much more European atmosphere," said Stradling.

"We try to cater to every scenario and cater to their needs and desires," Gibb said. "It is their club."

Part of the challenge of ensuring members enjoy their meal, Gibb said, is making sure they know there’s no need to rush, one of the benefits of dining at a club vs. a restaurant that needs to move people through more quickly.

While the restaurant is often the focal point it is only a piece of what the 100 Club strives to provides its members.

"With the membership, there’s a lot more going on," said Stradling.

There’s also a car service for members, available to take them from home or office to the club and back, even to run members from the restaurant to a downtown event after dinner, and back to enjoy a post-show cocktail or dessert. For those who bring their own cars to the restaurant, there’s valet parking at 100 Market St. The concierge service assists members in obtaining tickets to events, the theater, even air travel, as well as event-planning for social and business functions either at 100 Market St. or in their homes, and off-site catering.

"A lot of what we do is based on members’ needs," said Gibb. "We base a lot of things on members’ feedback, and we try to build and offer as many services around our members’ needs as possible."

The 100 Club is also open to organizing "clubs within the club" on members’ requests, groups that would get together to enjoy wine, books, theater or gourmet cooking, Stradling said.

More movie nights are also in the works, Simchik said, at which the club screens a film and serves similarly-themed food, such as "Chocolat."

As rich as the benefits may be, those who run the 100 Club insist that neither wealth nor privilege are required to become a member.

Simchik said because few in the Seacoast are really familiar with the private club concept, the 100 Club has at times been misunderstood as being elitist. "That’s really not true. It’s really people from all walks of life," he said.

Simchik said the club’s atmosphere is more casual than some might think, pointing to its recent Super Bowl party, at which Buffalo wings and popcorn were served.

"People are here for business, are here for pleasure," said Simchik.

Anyone interested may join the 100 Club, and Simchik said that 90 percent of those who come to the restaurant as a guest end up members. Those considering membership may obtain a guest pass to the restaurant.

"It has to be seen and experienced," said Gibb.

Joining the club is as simple as paying a one-time $2,000 initiation fee and $1,500 annual membership fee per couple, and there is no minimum members must spend at the club’s restaurant.

One thousand dollars of the $3,500 in the first year will go to the club’s Members Care Fund in a member’s first year, and then $500 of their annual membership fee goes into the fund in future years, Stradling said.

The Members Care Fund is administered by the Greater Piscataqua Community Foundation, and has its resources distributed by a committee of advisers made up of club members open to input from the club’s membership at large. The club’s plan is to disburse about half of what it raises to charities each spring for the next few years, and then donated what is left in larger amounts at the end of a three-year cycle. From there, the process of fundraising would begin again.

Simchik said the club is "open-minded about alliances" with charitable organizations in other fashions, and makes other contributions to the community, such as an upcoming event sponsorship.

The club started out with about a dozen founding members. With 92 now, the membership will grow to about 150 before pausing "to take a breath," said Simchik. At the 150 level, he said, the club will look at its use, constraints, and other factors before taking on more members. Ultimately, he said, the club could "easily be 200" members.

For information on the 100 Club, call 766-4100.