Peacock Alley
Restaurant · Midtown East
301 Park Ave, New York, NY 10022
Highlights
American fare, live piano music, and classic cocktails in an elegant lounge
American fare, live piano music, and classic cocktails in an elegant lounge
"The Gilded Age-era passageway at the center of the original Waldorf Astoria is reborn as a lounge serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as drinks by a bartender from Please Don't Tell. There’s nightly live music played on a piano once owned by Cole Porter, and you can spend $40 on a 50th Street Martini if you so choose." - will hartman, willa moore, molly fitzpatrick, sonal shah, bryan kim
"The storied corridor-turned-all-day bar and restaurant still connects Lexington and Park Avenues but has been expanded and dressed like a grand living room with tufted armchairs, deep corner banquettes and polished tables surrounding the iconic golden filigreed clock (a gift from Queen Victoria in 1893). It now doubles as an old-world bar and an all-day restaurant, serving breakfast, lunch, cocktails and dinner steps from the piano where Cole Porter wrote hits like “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.” Cocooned from midtown chaos, mornings are peaceful with jazz overhead, blue-suited servers delivering coffee on Bernardaud china, newspapers, Chanel‑clad dog walkers and silver trays of warm croissants by pastry chef Jenny Chiu. The breakfast offerings include an eggs Benedict ($38) reconstructed on a sourdough English Muffin with your choice of country ham or smoked salmon, draped in a glossy sash of hollandaise. By lunchtime banker-types and social groups arrive; the all-day menu by chef Michael Anthony includes caviar service, raw-bar towers, a smoked turkey club layered with crispy bacon and ripe summer tomato, and a revived Waldorf salad composed of baby gem lettuces, honeycrisp apples, quartered grapes and caramelized walnuts topped with “a heavy snowfall’s worth of grated New York State cheddar.” As evening settles the pianist takes the stage and the room leans into nostalgic glamour — hostesses in floor-length gold sequin gowns and servers in crushed-velvet, wide-lapeled tuxedos by No Uniform — and the 12-seat bar fills quickly. Cocktails from Jeff Bell include originals such as the Waldorf (rye, sweet vermouth, bitters), the Commodore ($34, bourbon, lemon, pomegranate) and the Dr. Cook ($32, Tito’s Vodka, Luxardo Maraschino, lime, grapefruit). “Hotel bars are the foundation of classic cocktails,” said Bell, and his list also offers four ice-cold martinis, three Old Fashioneds ($30 to $34) and seasonally changing drinks like a Rhuby Slipper ($30) that leans on fresh rhubarb juice and lemon balm. Snacks to pair with drinks include housemade Cheez-Its, roasted nuts with seaweed and sesame furikake, a platter of roasted and raw vegetables with a sweet French onion-ish dip ($28) and pigs in a blanket ($28) made from Chiu’s golden puff pastry and Anthony’s homemade sausages. Dinner items are unfussy and celebratory: a seafood tower ($118), New England crab cakes, Benton’s ham with biscuits ($24), lobster rolls ($53) topped with caviar and truffles, and beef sliders ($36) with cheese, caramelized onions, pickles and zesty katsu sauce. For a luxurious nightcap, Bell mixes a Reserve Rob Roy using Yamazaki Distiller’s Edition Whiskey, Cocchi Vermouth di Torino, La Venaria Reale Riserva and the addition of Benedictine; “This is such an artful and historic cocktail,” said Bell." - Andrea Strong
"The Gilded Age-era passageway at the center of the original Waldorf-Astoria is reborn as a lounge serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as drinks by a bartender from Please Don't Tell. There’s nightly live music played on a piano once owned by Cole Porter, and you can spend $40 on a 50th Street Martini if you so choose. We haven’t been here yet, but want you to know this spot exists." - Molly Fitzpatrick
"The only one of the trio that formerly operated at the hotel — an import from the 1890s — this originally cocktail-focused lobby bar has been upgraded to a full-service restaurant with Jeff Bell (of Please Don't Tell and the forthcoming West Village project, the Los Angeles import Tacos 1986, opening in Greenwich Village) overseeing the cocktail menu. Offerings include cocktails like the absinthe-laced Waldorf Cocktail ($38) and the 50th Street Martini ($40) made with Tanqueray, Vetiver, and dry vermouth; a raw bar with lavish seafood towers stocked with oysters and a lobster roll dressed with caviar and truffles; and doggedly classic items such as pigs in a blanket and a Waldorf salad. Designers returned to the earliest plans for the lobby — maple burl veneer, black marble columns, black lacquer and marble bar, and ornate French-leaning Art Deco flourishes — and the Cole Porter Steinway will still anchor the room with a pianist once again playing nightly, a spokesperson confirms. The historic lobby clock, a gift of Queen Victoria in 1893, has been restored for the space. The venue is open daily with a breakfast and an all-day menu; reservations are available via Resy or the hotel website." - Melissa McCart
Deborah Lynne
Richard Scalesse
Kristian Ivanov
Glo Song
GT G
mary ellen jacobs
Tamara Garcia
Katrina Samen
Richard E.
Hannah H.
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