The Ivory Peacock Has New York’s Biggest Gin List And A Seafood Bar

The Ivory Peacock is a majestic and ambitious new bar with New York City’s largest gin selection, 867 bottles and counting as of this past weekend. The Ivory Peacock, located on West 26th Street in the NoMad neighborhood, is also a sprawling venue with about 16,000 square feet of front-of-house space on two levels (including a hidden downstairs lounge, Ploume). But it’s perfectly calibrated for intimate experiences.

Sit atop one of the 14 marigold velvet seats at The Ivory Peacock’s glistening Emerald Bar and you can drink reserve cocktails made with Oaxacan gin, Japanese gin or Indian gin, among other options. You can also sip the delightful Fraise Amer drink with British Boodles strawberry-and-rhubarb gin. You can enjoy gin-and-tonic service on custom hand-carved trays. You can ask for gin flights or choose pours of gin from all over the United States and from every continent. And you’re front-and-center at chef Grayson Altenberg’s raw bar, with an assortment of chilled seafood behind the Emerald Bar.

Altenberg (who previously cooked at Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry and also worked for other Michelin-star fine-dining heavyweights like Daniel Boulud and Alain Verzeroli) is serving East Coast and West Coast oysters with smoked spicebush mignonette and yuzu koshō vinaigrette. He’s offering caviar service and shellfish-laden plateaus with lobster, spot prawns, crab claws and beautifully composed in-the-shell scallop ceviche. This is part of a French-and-Japanese-influenced menu that works nicely for dinner or alongside pre-dinner or post-dinner libations. Guests can also order white truffle spaghetti, a mizo-glazed croque monsieur, uni tempura, uni udon and a grilled wagyu bavette.

Visitors can also sit elsewhere at The Ivory Peacock and have Altenberg’s food. (Leaning back on a plush banquette, below antique chandeliers, with a martini is one option.) But proprietor Sarah Payton, who opened The Ivory Peacock with partner Karl Finegan, knows the eye-catching Emerald Bar will always be a statement of purpose.

“We added the Emerald Bar specifically to have this focal canvas,” says Payton, who tapped bar director Sean McClure and head bartenders Matthew Taglialavore and Daniel Benitez to lead the cocktail program at The Ivory Peacock. “We wanted people to really see this home of this massive gin collection. That bar also helps the space have intimacy. We have so much square footage and you can really have a different experience depending on who you’re with, the time of day and just where you are in the room, but the Emerald Bar just feels different.”

So Altenberg is working on a tasting menu with elegant seafood dishes, which will be paired with gin cocktails at the Emerald Bar. (Wine and beer are also available at The Ivory Peacock.) Payton says this tasting menu could debut in March.

“It really will be a global representation of seafood, similar to the global representation of gin,” she says. “We’re supporting local as well. There’s so much fantastic seafood that comes out of New York State and of course the Tristate area. We’ll have vegetarian options, too. I had no idea how much amazing agriculture was happening in the Hudson Valley and also in New Jersey until I started working on this project. The menu is going to change on a monthly or seasonal basis, depending on what we’re getting from seafood purveyors and farmers.”

After guests finish the tasting menu, it’s time for more drinks. For visitors who want a seductive nightlife environment after dinner, there’s Ploume, the subterranean lounge nestled below The Ivory Peacock.

“Ploume was named Ploume because it’s reflective of the beautiful feathers that peacocks are known for,” Payton says. “The color palette down there really reflects those inner rings of those feathers. I come from the world of hotels and, to me, a really amazing hotel lobby bar experience is almost unmatched. If hotels really hit it, it’s just such a transporting experience. I think the vision long-term is to really be that kind of later-night cocktail-lounge experience you might find yourself in at a great hotel.”

And for an ultra-exclusive experience, bar expert/designer Tobin Ellis created a hidden four-seat bar inside Ploume. Ellis, who designed the Emerald Bar and the main bars at The Ivory Peacock and Ploume as well, also set up oversized wells to give bartenders room to maneuver. This attention to detail is important to Payton, who was previously in charge of partnerships and programming for the luxurious Faena Miami Beach hotel and also did marketing and events for the Michelin Guide in New York.

Payton sees a lot of potential in NoMad, where she and Finegan can find sizable real estate, in an area that’s residential but also has offices with creative agencies, technology startups, finance companies and liquor brands. So she already has plans for two more spaces in the neighborhood.

“I feel like there’s other highly focused concepts that would really enhance the already amazing offerings in NoMad,” Payton says. “So we’re going to push toward two additional and very diverse concepts that I think also celebrate categories that really are untapped in NoMad and, in one instance, really in New York City.”