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On a Saturday morning in July, a swimsuit-clad crowd of athletic mostly 20- and 30-somethings jumped in and out of ice baths. A DJ performed from a podium adorned with pink disco balls, brands gave away protein drinks and powders and people competed in a pull-up-bar-hanging competition. With matcha lattes in hand, attendees walked around the synthetic turf filming content. It was all very Santa Monica.<\/p>\n
Except this wasn\u2019t Santa Monica, or even Venice, where the event organizer, Coffee & Chill, started. It wasn\u2019t Los Angeles at all. It was a rooftop in Queens. Day parties like this are less common in New York City, but people were into it. \u201cThis is so fun,\u201d April Zhang-Autio, who often attends art happenings around the city, said while wandering from a cabana area to a merch booth. \u201cYou feel like we\u2019re in Miami or L.A.\u201d<\/p>\n
L.A. wellness and social events, especially from the Westside, are making inroads in New York City. Besides Coffee & Chill, RummiKlub LA, which started in West Hollywood and throws Rummikub game nights in stylish settings, hosted an event last month at the West Village outpost of San Vicente Clubs, the elite members club operator that is another L.A. transplant. Also last month, SOSO Club, a singles meetup group from Santa Monica, popped up in New York City and returned Sunday.<\/p>\n
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Coffee & Chill started in Venice as a way to hang out without alcohol. <\/p>\n
(Coffee & Chill)<\/p>\n
Coffee & Chill<\/a> attracts L.A. participants who look like they could appear on the upcoming \u201cBaywatch\u201d reboot<\/a>. But the formula, which includes coffee and cold plunges in what resemble very high-end kiddie pools, has worked elsewhere. Blake Waller, who co-founded the event in 2023 as a way for his friends to gather without alcohol, said they decided to expand as requests came in from people in other cities. First came Miami, followed by New York City in 2025. They also host events in Austin and San Diego.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t really feel that there\u2019s anything like it in this space,\u201d Waller said, referring to the New York City scene. He cited Bathhouse and Othership, but those hip wellness places are brick-and-mortar establishments, not pop-up events. (In a reversal of the trend, New York City-based Bathhouse is opening a Hollywood location, in the old Amoeba Music space.)<\/p>\n Whereas L.A. events are often in parking lots, and Miami ones are by the beach or a pool, Coffee & Chill\u2019s New York City organizers have relied on rooftops. At one early event, they had to rig a hose to a bar faucet to fill the ice baths. \u201cMaybe the reality is that Coffee & Chill could have only been born somewhere like L.A. or Miami,\u201d Waller said. \u201cWho would think to fill up an ice bath from a water faucet on a rooftop in Chelsea?\u201d<\/p>\n The gatherings in each city have their own character, Waller said. \u201cThe L.A. events feel different than the Miami events, that feel different than Austin, that feel different than New York,\u201d he said. Each city has local organizers. \u201cThat\u2019s a space that they want to create, rather than us being transplants,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Still, local flavor only goes so far. Looking at photos from each of the cities, it can sometimes be hard to tell where they are. \u201cWhen it comes to the actual event experience, I would say that there is a decent amount of consistency, in terms of what the tubs look like, the merch, what that looks like, even the touch points of what brands we\u2019re working with,\u201d Waller said.<\/p>\n To be sure, L.A. winds up with events from New York City too. Endorphins Running<\/a>, which I run with, started in 2022 in New York City before expanding to other cities, including Los Angeles, where it hosts runs twice a week in Santa Monica. The Dinner Table Club<\/a>, where strangers eat together, also launched in New York City and expanded to L.A. But the L.A. to New York City pipeline seems to be a newer trend.<\/p>\n RummiKlub LA, both in Los Angeles, as seen here, and in New York, below is meant to be as much about the mingling as it is about the game play. <\/p>\n (Ashley Gallerani)<\/p>\n Another series, RummiKlub LA<\/a>, launched<\/a> in early 2025 and has hosted three events in New York City. The city has plenty of board game gatherings, but founders Marnie Wekselblatt and Laura Galvan, both L.A. residents originally from New York, intend for this one to feel more chic, with RummiKlub-branded game sets and post-game cocktails.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just bringing your board to a cafe or a park. It\u2019s really like a night out, where you can get dressed up, have cocktails, mingle, meet friends, and there\u2019s a whole night after the game play is done,\u201d Galvan said. Past L.A. locations have included buzzy restaurant Craig\u2019s and the West Hollywood Edition hotel on the Sunset Strip.<\/p>\n New York City actually came to them. Wekselblatt and Galvan said Tao Group Hospitality approached them about hosting events, resulting in back-to-back game nights at Moxy Lower East Side in July 2025. The people who attended, some of them visiting from L.A., were dressed for a nightclub, not a board game night.<\/p>\n The New York and L.A. crowds are similar. \u201cBoth cities are really interested in these gaming experiences,\u201d Wekselblatt said. \u201cEveryone has the same end goal and wants to be part of RummiKlub because it\u2019s this curated event and night out that\u2019s different from the traditional going for drinks and standing at a bar.\u201d<\/p>\n RummiKlub NYC events attract a similar crowd as in Los Angeles: young folks who want to socialize in a non-traditional setting.<\/p>\n (Ashley Gallerani)<\/p>\n The events are similar too. \u201cIt almost feels like we\u2019re copy-and-pasting on different coasts,\u201d Galvan said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say that we necessarily have an intention to bring L.A. to New York \u2026 but from a logistics standpoint, I would say that the flow of the event is pretty much standard throughout.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, SOSO<\/a> founders Stephanie Scheele and Mackenzie Zoppi heard the demand from New York after launching their dating event in Santa Monica in 2023. SOSO, or Singles Only Social Club, was born out of a growing desire among young professionals for in-person connections following the pandemic and years of dating app fatigue. New York was just as full of fed-up daters as Los Angeles, so they brought SOSO east.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have friends in New York and we know it\u2019s difficult to date in those places,\u201d Zoppi said. \u201cWe had people messaging us constantly asking us, \u2018When are you coming to New York?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n They\u2019ve had around seven events in New York City and Brooklyn. Sometimes the founders fly in to host, while other times they enlist what they called a small \u201cboots on the ground\u201d team.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether you\u2019re in L.A. or New York, people want the same exact thing: an excuse to get off their phones and get out of the house and meet people face to face,\u201d Zoppi said. Still, the organizers don\u2019t want their New York City events to feel like L.A. ones. Zoppi added, \u201cWe want people to date the New York way.\u201d<\/p>\n A version of this story originally appeared on Max Kutner\u2019s Zephyr Letter<\/a> substack.<\/p>\n ![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786962380_434_.jpeg\")
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