The Summit Club

1970s — 2009 — floors 25 and 26, 110 West Berry Street

The club in the sky: The Summit Club was Fort Wayne's purest city club — no golf, no tennis, only dining, drinking, and the view. It occupied the 25th and 26th floors of the Fort Wayne National Bank Building at 110 West Berry Street, the 339-foot tower that is now the PNC Center, and for roughly three decades it was the room where the city's business leadership lunched, dined, and held its receptions above the whole of Fort Wayne. The club's paper trail begins in the 1970s: Summit Club, Inc. holds a federal ruling as a tax-exempt social club dated December 1977, and a Concordia Lutheran High School yearbook was already directing readers to it in 1980 — "the Fort Wayne National Bank building holds the Summit Club, for dining and receptions." International reciprocal-club lists carried it in the company of America's downtown clubs, at Suite 2500, 110 West Berry Street, its members entitled to be received at sister clubs and theirs at the Summit in return.

How it worked: The club's inner mechanics survive in an unlikely document: a 1988 decision of the Indiana Tax Court, Summit Club, Inc. v. Indiana Department of State Revenue, over sales tax on the club's 15 percent gratuity service charges. The facts were stipulated. The club was a not-for-profit private club operating a restaurant and bar for its members; it had no food-service employees of its own — Restaurant Marketing Associates, a Fort Wayne firm, ran the kitchen and bar under contract. And the board's house rules, quoted in the opinion, ran the room on account: "No cash is accepted at the club. Members and spouses sign for all services." The court ruled for the club, ordering a refund of $21,201.55 with interest. It is the fullest surviving description of how a Fort Wayne private club actually operated — membership as a signature, money never seen on the table.

The end, and the afterlife: The end came fast and in public. The club was still serving its members in July 2009, when the Downtown Improvement District's Lunch on the Square listings offered Summit Club sandwiches and salads "for members only of this fine dining establishment." On September 2, 2009, local television reported that the club had abruptly closed, out of money; the report said the general manager had worked without pay since February in an effort to keep it alive. (A later magazine profile of the space misdates the closing to late 2008; the contemporary record — the July listings and the September report — places it in 2009.) The floors stood empty for a time, then reopened as Empyrean, an events and catering venue — Fort Wayne Magazine dates Empyrean's opening in the former Summit Club to 2013 — and in October 2024 Whatzup announced the space's third life: La Vetta, Italian for "the summit," a luxury event venue of more than 20,000 square feet by the founders of Catablu, opened in the same two floors. The club is gone; the room at the top of Fort Wayne is still in business under its name, translated.

Sources:

1. IRS exempt-organization record for Summit Club Inc, Fort Wayne (via eintaxid.com) — recognized as a social and recreational club; IRS ruling date December 1977; last return in the database for fiscal 2010.
2. Summit Club, Inc. v. Indiana Department of State Revenue, 523 N.E.2d 462 (Ind. Tax Ct., 9 September 1988) — the stipulated facts: the not-for-profit private club, the contract operator, the house rules ("No cash is accepted at the club. Members and spouses sign for all services"), the 1983–1985 audit years, the refund ordered.
3. The Luminarian, Concordia Lutheran High School yearbook (1980) — the Summit Club in the Fort Wayne National Bank building, "for dining and receptions."
4. Royal Automobile Club reciprocal club lists — "Summit Club, Fort Wayne National Bank Building, Suite 2500, 110 West Berry Street, Fort Wayne, Indiana."
5. Downtown Improvement District, Lunch on the Square listings (July 2009), via AroundFortWayne — the Summit Club serving members weeks before the end.
6. Indiana's NewsCenter report of 2 September 2009, as carried by Fort Wayne restaurant press — the abrupt closing, the empty treasury, the manager unpaid since February.
7. Business People magazine, "Still the Best View in Town" — the Empyrean reopening of the 25th and 26th floors; its "late 2008" closing date noted in the entry as against the contemporary record.
8. Fort Wayne Magazine (October 2016) — Empyrean's opening in the former Summit Club dated to 2013.
9. Whatzup, "La Vetta event space opening downtown" (October 2024) — the 339-foot PNC Center; La Vetta, 110 W. Berry St., more than 20,000 square feet across the two floors.