BY ALAN THATCHER
THE first padel club has opened in New York, just a brisk volley away from the East River. Cross the Williamsburg Bridge from Manhattan’s Lower East Side into Brooklyn and you will soon find the Padel Haus in a warehouse on Kent Avenue.
Further Padel Haus locations are planned in Manhattan, Long Island City, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington DC as the brand spreads across North America.
According to a feature in New York’s edition of Time Out magazine, the Brooklyn site will be the first padel club in NYC, calling it “a new, 16,000-square-foot members-only club and upscale fitness center boasting professional-size padel courts, a juice bar and rooftop space.”
Renderings show a mixture of four indoor and two outdoor courts and a TimeOut fun fact tells us all about the origins of this new chain.
TimeOut Fun Fact: Santiago Gomez, co-founder of iconic Mexican restaurants Cosme and Atla, is the founder of the project.
“I played padel for almost 20 years while growing up in Mexico and spending my summers in Acapulco, where the sport was invented,” Gomez said in an official statement.
“When the pandemic hit in 2020, I went back to Acapulco and made padel a part of my routine, playing every day. When I eventually returned to New York, I realized that the sport was one of the things the city was missing and the idea for Padel Haus was born.”
Mexican Gomez shares a backstory alongside the birth of padel in 1969 in Mexico. The Brooklyn club’s eatery will be a Mexican restaurant designed by Gomez.
The Padel Haus website says: “Our multidimensional space creates a socially engaging environment for kids and adults to practice, compete and socialize. Padel Haus is designed for padel players and sports enthusiasts of all levels.
“The flagship South Williamsburg location will open summer 2022 with additional clubs opening soon.”
A separate club, also with the title of Padel Haus, operates in the Green Oaks suburb of northern Chicago but is not related to the New York business.
According to GQ magazine, padel is tipped to become the “biggest fitness trend of the summer” in the USA.
Padel Haus website
