77 W Houston St

"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)."

"This upstairs den in Soho from mixology maven Audrey Saunders has long been on the must-visit list for cocktail aficionados. The large windows looking out to Houston Street provide amusement alongside modern alcoholic classics like the Earl Grey-infused gin martini. But don’t sleep on the zippy, vaguely Asian-influenced dishes, especially smoked trout deviled eggs and orange-glazed braised duck in crispy wonton cones." - Paul Schrodt

"There’s a good chance you’ve heard of the Pegu Club, and you’ve probably walked by it many times without realizing it. It’s on the second floor of a two-story building on Houston, and it’s the sort of place where you could send your boss if they wanted to get a relatively quiet drink with a client downtown. The space is just one long room with a bunch of armchairs and low tables, and it feels like the lobby of an upscale hotel that probably has very nice sheets." - Bryan Kim