Personally I wouldn't had gone in the "gentlemen's club"-direction, feels a bit old and stuffy as well as having some bad connotations (if it isn't meant to be ironic that is) but each to their own I guess :)
Prohibition era gangsters?
Then again, you can't politize everything and it's probably meant to just be different and be in "good fun", shrug
Guess the good thing about having your own company is that you can do what you want :)
What you're missing is the role of the members clubs in the industrial revolution.
They were instrumental as a place where business leaders could get together, relax, share ideas, views, experiences and do business. Debating the days' news, and enjoying a drink.
From that light... I'd do it too. I'd build part of an office as a club and would encourage other startups and developers to drop-in and share.
Gentleman's clubs were the environment for serendipity of their age. And even with mass communication and global travel, it remains the case that if you can get people together, relaxing, dreaming big ideas and laughing... magic can happen.
Yeah, I'd build a club environment too. And it wouldn't be so I could pretend to be of that class, it would be to construct an environment that was proven to be good for serendipity.
I'd also stock the bar well and subsidise it... helps to grease the wheels.