Long Story Social Club is a new, community-based club that hosts exclusive events for people in Montclair, Ridgewood, and the surrounding areas. What started as an idea during the COVID-19 Pandemic has become an official social club, which launched its first event earlier this year: a blindfolded dinner and sensory voyage at a high-end restaurant. With more events in the works and exciting new partnerships, Long Story Social Club will be something The Montclair Girl readers will want to take part in. Read on to learn more about Long Story Social Club in MG’s exclusive chat with the founder.
Photo Credit: ZK Photoworks
Launching Long Story Social Club
Inna Gorelik, the founder of Long Story, always had a passion for hosting events. The idea to launch the club was derived more than two years ago, particularly during the COVID-19 Pandemic. “It’s always been running through my head because I used to live in Park Slope and then I moved to Montclair about five years ago and I kind of miss the city. I crave the city feel of events that they offer versus in New Jersey,” she told The Montclair Girl.
To make up for what she was “missing” in New York City, she started curating “out of the box” events for her friends and started doing a trial run of the social club idea with her friends. Her events became inspired by various experiences over the years in other countries, such as dining in Budapest at a Michelin-star restaurant that involved taking a train.
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The founder told MG that the target audience is young adults and young families that crave excitement, but don’t want to travel 45 minutes or an hour to the city. She explained, “It’s bringing what the city offers into NJ, and we don’t have anything like this in Montclair or Ridgewood. So I think there’s definitely an appetite for that.”
Photo Credit: ZK Photoworks
While there aren’t specific age requirements — although the interest has mainly been 30-45-year-olds — Inna said that those who sign up for events can be anyone from those wanting a different type of date night, those wanting a unique dinner experience, women wanting a girls’ night out and so forth.
She continued, “It definitely could be a date night, but could also be networking. It could be singles. It could be people looking to make new friends, which is really hard to do in the suburban area.”
Experiencing Exclusive Events
The full-time project manager had, what she calls, a soft opening of Long Story Social Club, on January 28th in Ridgewood. “It was really private,” she said, while noting everything was a mystery including the four-course meal and wine pairings.
Photo Credit: ZK Photoworks
“The idea is not to disclose the food, not to disclose the wine selection, and just for them to guess what they’re eating and the ingredients that are in their dish,” she shared with The Montclair Girl. “The whole thing is [in the dark] with the mask being worn from the minute you enter. That’s part of the suspense – not knowing even how big or small the room is until you take your mask off.”
At the end of the night, guests who attended the exclusive event would have a “long story” to share since “long stories are always better than short ones,” Inna said. “Every event is a story that you customize your own story. Mine will be very different than the person that’s sitting next to me eating vegan or vegetarian food. And the way you experience touch, the music differently than the person next to you.”
Photo Credit: ZK Photoworks
The founder said that the response so far has been very positive with a lot of people excited about the concept and how everything is a mystery, including the specific location. “I think that’s kind of what keeps people wanting more. I don’t know how much everybody likes surprises, but the goal is really to keep this undercover, to be able to not really know where you’re going at that time until the day of,” Inna said.
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Stay In The Know
Long Story Social Club will be hosting more events in the Ridgewood area and Montclair area in the coming months. For now, the social club will be sticking to the dinner-in-the-dark theme and focusing on a small group of members. Depending on the space of the venue, each event can have 15-30 people to make sure it’s a more personal experience. At the moment, there is no membership fee, but each event can cost anywhere from $50-$200.
“I’m in talks with working with some art shops and doing some wine tastings at some of these art shops,” Inna teased. “Really, the idea is also to work with these local mom-and-pop shops mostly to support them, and I think the people that really live here in these kinds of areas, that’s really what they love. They love supporting mom-and-pop coffee shops versus a Starbucks.”
For those interested in upcoming events, the best way to be in the know is by following Long Story Social Club on Instagram and also signing up to be on the VIP list found on the website.
