Our mission at JAKE is to bring the very best in everything to gay Londoners. Whether it’s an exclusive evening with Dame Joan Collins (you’re going to hear the word ‘exclusive’ a lot, by the way), exclusive cocktails with West End legends accompanying the grand piano at the members-only Club at The Ivy, an exclusive preview screening of Oscar-winning Moonlight or gay HBO series Looking, an exclusive performance by Josef Salvat on the roof of The Ace, an exclusive restaurant take-over of Michelin-starred The Ninth, an exclusive evening on the terraces of Somerset House, an exclusive evening at Maison Rémy Martin with lashings of cocktails and other delights, an exclusive art party with Gavin Turk, exclusive shopping evenings at Coach, Byredo and Bally, an exclusive Soho VIP spot overlooking the action at London Pride with free fizz or an exclusive dinner hosted by Yotam Ottolenghi himself at his Soho NOPI restaurant.
These are just a few of the big – shall we say ‘exclusive’ one more time? – nights out that we organise for the gay and the good. And all you have to do is sign up for the free invites and choose which of them you want to be part of.
Drinks
Something of an institution, these are after-work drinks at a venue where you wouldn’t usually expect to have a gay night out. Think of it as ‘the best gay bar in London tonight’, a pop-up kind of affair. And we’ve done it everywhere: Somerset House, Corinthia, Old Sessions House, 1 Warwick, The Londoner, One Hundred Shoreditch, art’otel Battersea, Maison Francois, Café Royale… we could go on but that would just be showing off.
Dinner
We take over a whole restaurant – usually a new and a buzzy one – and members come to eat, drink and table hop. Yotam Ottolenghi himself popped in to say hello at the one we had at Nopi, as did Jun Tanaka when we took over his Michelin-starred The Ninth.
Screenings
Through our contacts we bag free preview screenings of the gay films and TV shows everyone is desperate to see whether it’s the Oscar-winning Moonlight, Call Me By Your Name, Philomena or The Danish Girl or series like Will & Grace (we saw it first when they made their comeback) and Looking.
Theatre
Because there are so many of us, we can take over small theatres - including Trafalgar Studios and Kings Head Theatre - and have the night to ourselves, including VIP after-parties with members of the cast joining us for drinks and general hob-nobbing.
Shopping
When we take over a shop after hours, they get the fizz on ice and the discounts at the ready. With no pressure to buy anything at all, it’s an opportunity for retailers like Byredo, Coach and Bally to showcase their gorgeous things in as creative a way as they can, often with a goodie bag and a prize to go with it. Oh and the fizz.
Showcases
Not that Dame Joan Collins needs us to showcase her talents but she did turn up at The May Fair, tell stories, read from her book, submit to an interview by our founder (and her friend) Ivan Massow, take questions from us and then go upstairs to mix, mingle, sign books and get selfies done. Then we had singers Josef Salvat and Peyton all to ourselves at The Ace. It’s just the beginning.
Pride
It's the biggest day of the gay year so why spend it tramping around the streets of Soho when you could be at an exclusive party with free fizz, decent facilities, cool disco and highly flirtable gay men? Not a reason in the world we can think of. Which is why we regularly find the best locations to host Jake members for their all their Pride needs.