Chez Zou is on the fourth floor of Manhattan West Plaza in Hudson Yards, above the Mediterranean restaurant Zou Zou's, and the room was designed by AvroKO to evoke traditional Middle Eastern tea parlors. Lush greenery, chaise lounges, bold patterns, and lighting calibrated to hit the exact middle ground between intimate and dramatic. Walk-in only, which reinforces the sense that arriving is part of the bar's identity rather than a policy limitation.

The cocktail menu was developed by Joey Smith, formerly of The NoMad, Eleven Madison Park, and Booker & Dax, and it divides drinks into six categories: jarras, stiff drinks, shaken, coladas, highballs, and bubbles. Saffron, cardamom, fig, dates, and similar Mediterranean ingredients run through the program. The Dirty Zou is vodka and olive brine with the specificity of a bar that knows its ingredients and why it's using them. The Banana Danse goes bourbon, banana, and cardamom.

Manhattan West is still finding its footing as a neighborhood, but Chez Zou is one of the clearest reasons to make the trip there.