Pegu Club Cocktail Lounge in NYC Closes Permanently After Nearly 15 Years | Eater NY

"I opened Pegu Club in 2005 after training with Dale DeGroff, and it grew into one of New York’s earliest craft-cocktail destinations and a must-visit in Soho: a large, low-lit, wood‑laden second‑story space on Houston with speakeasy vibes, well-worn bamboo floors, gilded lighting and a little brass dragon business‑card holder at the entrance. We helped spawn the cocktail renaissance—championing fresh‑squeezed juices, in‑house syrups, complex cocktails (often with cheeky names and high price tags) and sophisticated small bites—and many Pegu alumni went on to open acclaimed bars such as PDT and Bar Goto. Faced with an expiring lease on October 31, chronic plumbing that has plagued the space since day one, the prospect of an unaffordable rent increase, and a COVID-19 shutdown that “took every bit of life” out of the business—summer service is historically “slow as molasses,” social‑distancing limits would have capped capacity at 50%, and PPP constraints meant we couldn’t sustainably bring back staff—I made the decision to close permanently after nearly 15 years and am unlikely to try to replicate Pegu elsewhere because its quirky location and accumulated details gave it a sense of place that couldn’t be moved." - Serena Dai