"When Audrey Saunders first opened Pegu Club on Houston Street in 2005, it was a pioneer. While nowadays bars and hotels around the world can boast of mixologists creating handcrafted cocktails, Saunders started her business when the idea of an haute cocktail lounge was still a novelty. Its name is adopted from a British officers' club in Myanmar, and the decor has a vaguely Southeast Asian look, with carved wooden screens covering the windows overlooking Houston and rice-paper light fixtures giving a warm glow to the space at night. The cocktail menu is decidedly traditional, with a number of early-20th-century recipes—that means it's heavy on gin drinks, though other spirits are represented. There's also a choice of appetizers, most of them Asian-inspired (summer rolls, coconut shrimp), but there are classic bar snacks as well (deviled eggs, oyster po'boys)."
