Inside The Oracle Club, A Co-Working Salon for Writers & Artists in LIC, Queens

Our fascination with awesome New York City co-working spaces continues with The Oracle Club in Long Island City. This cozy location is the perfect spot for working in private or in a group, and regularly holds social and networking events for its members. Take a look at all Oracle has to offer, and what makes it different from our other co-working picks: The Yard and General Assembly.

In its three years of operation, The Oracle Club has garnered quite an eccentric clientele, offering single memberships for $150/month to take advantage of the private desks and walls lined with stacks of books. Unlike the other two co-working spaces mentioned, it feels more like Old New York, somewhat resembling a university’s History or English department. It was founded in 2011 by writer and New Yorker Julian Tepper and Jenna Gribbon, an artist from Knoxville, TN, hoping to offer likeminded intellectuals the space to be creative and mingle among the arts.

They also host regular book readings and writer’s events to help build the community and family feel. It is no mistake the Club fosters this type of intimacy. The founders, a couple with a young son, told BOMB, “If we walk by the club and [our son] doesn’t get to come inside, he cries. I think it’s going to be a really special thing to grow up around. How wonderful it will be to be surrounded by talented people who are engaged. And to grow up around so many books.” Their son was one year old at the time.

The name “The Oracle Club” is meant to embody the type of exclusivity and mystique associated with the old Gilded Age members-only clubs like the National Arts Club. Tepper explains that having artists occupy the space makes it even more valuable: “There’s no pulse in those places for one reason or the other. I think what they’re missing is artists—working, specifically. A place like the National Arts Club, it’s beautiful. If there were artists working inside? It would be amazing.”

Check out The Oracle Club’s website for membership information!

Check out the interiors of Gilded Age clubs in New York City like the Salmagundi Club, The Players Club, The Metropolitan Club and The Yale Club. For more examples of cool co-working spaces we’ve covered, read up on The Yard and General Assembly. Get in touch with the author @uptownvoice.

Photos courtesy of The Oracle Club.