Over the past decade, industries have been shaped around the unlikeliest of commodities, from sleep and sex to clutter and social connection. In recent years, a new formula for selling the latter has emerged in cities such as New York and London in the shape of “social wellness clubs”, bricks-and-mortar locations that the public – fed up with doom scrolling and side swiping – can visit to socialise with like-minded people while advancing their health and wellbeing ambitions.
In Ireland, our social lives have traditionally worked against our health goals; alcohol was at the heart of everything, from date nights and book clubs to birthdays and christenings. But since Covid exacerbated a loneliness epidemic – in 2023 the World Health Organisation declared loneliness a “global public health concern” – and lockdowns broke regular routines of a pint in the pub after work, the zeitgeist is slowly shifting as people look for more wholesome ways to connect face to face.
Remedy Place in New York was the inspiration for social wellness club Natur & Co in Omagh in Co Tyrone, founded by Tyrone intercounty GAA player Richard Donnelly. The upmarket New York venue launched in 2019 and dubbed itself “the world’s first social wellness club, designed to enhance your health and social life through self-care and human connection”. It now has outlets in Soho and Flatiron in New York, one in Boston and another in West Hollywood.
Dubliner Gavin Manley, a copywriter and writer who specialises in luxury lifestyle brands, has called New York home for the past 20 years and lives just a couple of blocks away from Remedy Place’s Flatiron branch. One of his female colleagues, “who’s always connected to what’s new and what’s next”, says Remedy Place is at the top of her must-visit list. It obviously comes with the promise of social kudos as well as social connection, which might explain the hefty membership fee; subscriptions start at $500 a month and rise to $1,875.
Manley hasn’t been to Remedy Place himself, but he’s certainly seeing a shift in the relationship between how people look after themselves and how they manage their social lives.
“The company I work for has begun doing monthly happy hours in an effort to boost morale,” he says. “The last happy hour was hosted by Levelup Wellness, which calls itself ‘a longevity and regenerative medicine concierge service’; think peptides, SofWave, IV drips. It was wellness, but very much in a social situation.”
It’s a far cry from the cheap early-bird cocktails and drunken after-work get-togethers that traditionally characterised happy hours here in Ireland. Donnelly agrees and explains that as a committed footballer, who drinks alcohol only about four times a year, he began to wonder what was available socially beyond pubs and clubs.
“I created a concept that matched my lifestyle,” he says. “I eat organic produce that’s responsibly sourced, and I like good coffee. I enjoy seawater swims and saunas. So I built a cafe and wellness space where people could connect through conversation and health-based activities and interests.”
He describes Remedy Place as “the millionaire’s version of what I’m doing here”. Donnelly’s funds were limited, so he had to get creative when fitting out the Natur & Co premises.
“I had to be really innovative with the cafe,” he says. “A friend of mine had about 100 wooden palettes sitting in his back garden, which he gave to me for free, and a joiner friend used them to do the fit out. My mum is incredibly creative and has a great eye, so she looked after the interior design.”
The result is a light-filled, open-plan space peppered with hanging plants and leafy indoor potted trees that look like organic sculptures. Despite this holistic aesthetic, Donnelly compares the cafe’s atmosphere to a cocktail bar.
“The playlist is like lobby music you’d hear in a really vibrant London hotel, and the volume is deliberately high because people are more comfortable when they don’t have to whisper. Conversations aren’t surface-level; they go deeper because nobody can be overheard.”
Pilates, hot yoga and output classes are on offer along with an infrared sauna, and there are no elitist entry costs or subscription fees; everything is on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Donnelly says his customer base ranges from 14-year-olds interested in superfood smoothies to 75-year-olds looking for scones. “We then have to try to sell them protein balls,” he says, laughing, “but once they taste a sample, they always come back for more.” He often spots couples there in the early phases of dating, and every other day there’s a business deal being done. The entrepreneur describes Natur & Co as having a “unique energy”.
The Wellness Hub began as a simple Zumba class. Alvarado grew up in Venezuela, where, she says, everything revolves around music. “When you’re in the womb, you’re dancing, when you’re born, you’re dancing, when your grandma is cooking, she’s dancing,” the mum of two explains. “One day in the middle of Covid when I was feeling really lonely, I just came downstairs, turned on some music and started dancing. I felt my energy shift immediately so I invited some of my neighbours to an outdoor class as a way to reconnect.” The feedback she received from just two classes motivated her to establish The Wellness Hub.
The activities – which include sound baths, Zumba, family yoga, kula yoga, men’s yoga, breath work and baby-and-mum massage – are free and followed by tea, pastries and chats where the practitioners and participants alike hang out. The former procurement professional for British Telecoms explains that the organisation’s indoor activities fund these outdoor events – Alvarado can’t charge for wellness services practised in open public spaces until she secures the relevant permits and licensing from the county council.
In winter, events move around local venues, but Alvarado has plans for a permanent space in Greystones village this year. Next year, she intends to work with corporates, schools, hospitals and other institutions to build the fledgling business’s revenue, but more importantly, to bring her vision of wellness and connection to a wider community.
Maybe it’s the Mediterranean-like sky or the holiday atmosphere of a seaside location, but the energy feels as warm and uplifting as the weather. Alvarado says gathering at the marina on a sunny day is like “entering a different reality”. Ann Teehan, a first-timer at The Wellness Hub, agrees. A professional organiser and founder of Neatly.ie, she ran a zero-waste shop in Greystones village until it was forced to close during Covid. She misses the daily interactions that came with having a physical premises and she is all for The Wellness Hub as a way of connecting in a manner that fits in with her own values.
“What I do is very much about wellbeing,” she says. “But it can be lonely as a woman in business and any way of making new connections is a good thing. I’ll definitely be coming back.”
Lynn Hodgins is one of The Wellness Hub’s practitioners. A sound healer, yoga teacher and nutritional health coach, who radiates calmness and kindness, she believes more and more people are using wellness rather than alcohol as a vehicle to connect. “I’ve been much busier since Covid because people are looking more closely at their health and asking: What makes me happy? What fills my cup? Is it work, is it shopping, is it the pub? When all of these things were peeled away during the pandemic, most of us realised it was the basic things, like meeting someone for a walk and a chat.”
Holistic psychotherapist Mary Lynn agrees. She’s seeing this same need for more meaningful connections in her therapy room. “We live in an attention economy, which has fundamentally altered how we connect,” she says. “But there is no self without other. We’re social beings, we need to stay connected, and that relationship between physical movement and personal interaction is a powerful one.”
One particular client of Lynn’s, who recently went through a difficult divorce, travelled to the Far East to visit a social wellness-style club centred on exercise and socialising. “The healing and sense of self she’s found is astonishing,” says the Galway-based therapist. “She told me that this is the first time she feels her mind, body and soul have come together as one. She’s like an entirely new woman.”
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Alvarado, flushed and energised from giving her Zumba class in the wake of Hodgins’s soothing sound bath, believes you can change people’s lives simply through community, connection and fitness.
“There have always been plenty of wellness activities in Greystones, but they were scattered and, individually, people felt lonely and without support,” she says. “The Wellness Hub is about bringing everyone together to feel encouraged and included. I’ve seen friendships form here and develop far beyond the parameters of the Hub. That’s the real pay-off for me.”
