Pegu Club

Audrey Saunders

Nov 28

There have been countless “Club” cocktails as well through the ages, each a reflection in some way of the establishment where they began as the “house cocktail”.

Let’s select one with which to toast the Club Case – perhaps, the Pegu Club?

This is a drink I’ve been meaning to feature for some time, and now have the perfect opportunity.

The Pegu Club was a Gentlemen’s Club for British Officers and civilians built in 1880 in the city of Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar).

Like all classic British Officer’s cocktails, the club’s signature drink featured gin (preferably “Navy Strength”) and a healthy dose of citrus. It was meant to be light and refreshing, perfect for a hot day in a tropical country.

Pegu Club c. 1882

Thanks to the popularity of the club, known as one of the finest in Southeast Asia at the turn of the twentieth century, the Pegu Club cocktail was known far and wide around the world.

Its popularity had a resurgence, along with the craft cocktail movement, in 2005, when Audrey Saunders opened her famed bar of the same name in New York City.

This was a defining moment in modern cocktail culture, when classics were relatively unknown (and thus “new”) and when mixing drinks was becoming a culinary art once again. Saunder’s mentor, the famed “King Cocktail” himself Dale DeGroff, actually coined the term “mixology” from his perch at the Rainbow Room.

People came to Saunder’s Pegu Club to drink, but also to learn.

It became an epicenter of the new cocktail culture.

If you want a taste of the Golden Age of cocktails with seamless transition to the modern day, order or make yourself a Pegu Club.

Cheers!