Discreet is not often an adjective used to describe Miami, whose starchitect-constructed skyline totes names like Zaha Hadid and Herzog & de Meuron. In a city where hospitality concepts are designed to see and be seen, Harbour Club in Miami Beach’s Sunset Harbour is the opposite—it could easily be mistaken for a neighborhood café. The only hint of the private members’ club shielded behind the terracotta facade is the seven-foot, color-splattered Damien Hirst disc displayed above the stairwell on the second floor, hung intentionally next to the expansive windows so it’s visible from the sidewalk below.
Inspired by English private dining clubs, founder James Julius wants Harbour Club to “be an extension of my members’ homes—somewhere you can come for pasta and a martini at the bar when you don’t want to cook on a Tuesday,” says the London native, who moved from New York to Miami in 2021 to open ZZ’s Club, Major Food Group’s private membership club in Miami Design District. “I looked to other private members’ clubs back home [in London] and brought that crazy-yet-sophisticated feel to the spaces without being overly Las Vegas-y.”
The discreet exterior belies decadent interior spaces.
Joe Thomas
The tiny Sunset Harbour neighborhood spans about three blocks along Biscayne Bay, the Venetian Causeway connecting this stretch of Miami Beach to Downtown Miami. “It’s like a little New York—everyone has moved down and they’re building houses on the nearby Sunset and Venetian Islands,” Julius says, adding that the neighborhood is easy to access, but, apart from juice bars and boutique fitness studios like Barry’s Bootcamp, lacks upscale dining options. “I wanted to be on everyone’s doorstep and create a space where you can sit outside and see friends passing by.”
Art spills across the interiors.
Joe Thomas
Italian Mediterranean restaurant a’Riva, open to the public by reservation only, spills onto a sidewalk terrace lined with lush tropical greenery. Naples, Italy-born executive chef Michele Esposito (formerly of Casa Tua in Miami, three Michelin-starred Villa Crespi in Piedmont, and Caruso, A Belmond Hotel, Amalfi Coast) blends classic coastal Italian cuisine, Mediterranean touches, and family traditions for dishes such as tamarind-coated lamb chops with chimichurri and Campania’s classic spaghetti alla Nerano garnished with zucchini flowers and basil. At speakeasy-style Palm Room, a menu of light bites from a’Riva and Japanese restaurant Nikai at Harbour Club is paired alongside handcrafted cocktails served at plush velvet armchairs while a DJ spins late into the evenings on weekends.
Palm fronds are a theme threaded throughout the two-story space, which Julius spent two years renovating with the help of architectural and design studio Yodezeen. Custom-designed Orlean wallpaper lines the Instagrammable bathrooms (the only spot where photos are technically permitted), as well as the walls and ceiling of the lounge-like, members-only Palm Room. Brass palm frond light fixtures drape over the crescent-shaped velvet booths in the sultry, second-floor Nikai Lounge, where fresh fish is flown in daily from Japan and rolls are topped with caviar.
There is plenty to drink in.
Joe Thomas
The staircase connecting a’Riva to the upstairs duo of members-only spaces is encased with bird of paradise flower-adorned wallcovering and crowned with Hajime Sorayama’s statement-making, 300-pound metal Sexy Robot sculpture—a nod to Annabel’s in London’s iconic stairwell with its suspended winged unicorn.
“In London, people have multiple memberships and only eat at members’ clubs, not at regular restaurants,” says Julius. “Over the last year or so, we’ve seen people in the U.S. start to hold multiple memberships, but a lot here are far more expensive than the ones in London, which is why I tried to bring the English style of club here.”
Harbour Club’s 40 founding members are “some of the biggest people in Miami,” and Julius wants them to feel like they had a part to play in curating the membership base and club experience (a signature membership is $2,500 annually, plus a $5,000 initiation fee; a lifetime founding membership is a one-time initiation fee of $40,000). “I said, ‘I want this club to feel like your second home—I want you to know everyone who is coming in here,’” he explains, adding that one of the application questions is how much time you spend in Miami, since most members live there full-time. “I wanted to create a space that’s for the people of Miami, the neighborhood of Sunset Harbour, and neighboring islands.”
