RIVER NORTH — Dray and Ali Washington moved to Chicago in 2018 without knowing anyone in their new city.

The two immediately joined several social clubs, hoping to make friends, but they had trouble creating meaningful connections.

“We always had a good time, but we wouldn’t really build real community. So I bounced from social club to social club, and we were going to our third initiation and I was like, ‘We’re done,'” Dray Washington said.

They decided to take a new approach to social clubs: They created their own.

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The couple opened the Three Cities Social clubhouse Monday at 320 W. Ohio St. in River North.

Three Cities Social is borne out of the ACC Collective, which the couple launched in 2022 to organize social events. The collective centers activities around altruism, connection and culture, bringing members together several times a month for group activities across Chicago.

In the past year and a half, Dray Washington has put on 85 events across 35 Chicago neighborhoods, he said. The club purposefully spreads events across the city to “get people out of their neighborhood,” but the Washingtons decided to put roots down in River North to give members a place to gather outside of club activities, he said.

Three Cities Social plays on the idea of Chicago having three major parts of the city: the South, West and North sides.

“I’ve talked with some other social club owners in the city, and they say ours is unique. They all have bars … . That is where they’re making their money. They can’t go and do things around the city because they need people at that location spending money … . Our unique pitch is that we’re getting around Chicago; we’re very passionate about that,” Dray Washington said.

Located on the seventh floor of the Ohio Street building, the members-only space is 7,500 square feet with a large open-floor layout. It has private work rooms, a large lounge space, a library, a private dining room, a small gym and bottomless coffee.

For $199 per person a month or $249 for a couple, members get access to the clubhouse 7 a.m.-1 a.m. daily in addition to at least six planned events a month and an in-house bartender once a week, in addition to various events.

Monthly member events include dance classes, a dinner series and volunteering opportunities in addition to trying out new hobbies at local businesses such as candle-making or woodworking.

The club also has “social circles,” or member-run clubs centered around common interests. Current social circles include a wine and entrepreneur club. Members can also submit ideas for social circles.

Three Cities Social has 85 members. The owners hope to increase membership to 500 people with about 20-25 social circles for members to explore.

“We really want it to feel like, ‘Hey, let’s build a real community around not just showing up and trying to look cute,'” Dray Washington said.

The social club’s age demographic is 25-45 years old, but it really markets to people over 30, as it gets harder to make new friends around that age, Dray Washington said.

In the future, Three Cities Social would like to expand with another clubhouse on the South Side with an outdoor space for games like pickleball, the owners said.

Those interested in joining can fill out an application on the club’s website.

Don’t worry, it’s not intense, Dray Washington said. The application is short and asks potential members about what social causes they care about and social circles they’d be interested in.

“We don’t ask what you do. We don’t care about that. We are really just look for good people,” Dray Washington said.

Three Cities Social joins other social clubs that have opened in Chicago in the last decade, including Soho House in Fulton Market, Astor Club in the Gold Coast and wellness-focused BIÂN in River North. The city is also home to a number of social clubs that were founded more than a century ago, like the University Club, the Union League Club, The Arts Club of Chicago and The Cliff Dwellers.

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