The New York Power Lunch, Circa 1930.

The Cloud Club was an exclusive, private luncheon club that occupied the 66th to 68th floors of the Chrysler Building in New York City. It opened in 1930 and became one of the most prestigious and elite social clubs in the city, attracting powerful businessmen, financiers, and celebrities.  It was conceived by Walter Chrysler, the automobile magnate, as a way to draw high-profile tenants to the Chrysler Building, which had just been completed in 1930 as the tallest building in the world at the time.

Architects provided the Cloud Club with a lavish Art Deco interior that matched the grandeur of the Chrysler Building itself.  For New York execs who took their power lunches seriously, cocktails were served in sleek, geometrically-designed glassware, mirroring the ornamentation and refined glamour of the Chrysler Building – an architectural masterpiece.