With more Peruvian restaurants in New York City comes more Peruvian cocktails. With more Peruvian cocktails comes more happy hours at Peruvian restaurants. Here are my recommendations:
Raymi: New York’s most developed pisco program pairs superbly with their all night happy hour on Tuesdays, their Pigs ‘N Tails night, where chef Erik Ramirez cooks up entire pigs and serves them in porky small plates like pig tails in a soy-lime-cilantro sauce, crispy ears with a spicy mayo, pan con chicharron sliders, and ribs in an aji panca based BBQ sauce. Prices are $6-8 dollars for small plates and $8 cocktails like chilcanos, pisco sours, and mojaditas. This is easily one of the best Latin happy hours in New York. The rest of the week the hours are shorter, though there’s still $4-5 bar bites like mini causas, ceviches, anticuchos, and picarones and $8 cocktails.
Pigs ‘N Tails:Tuesday, 5pm to close
Other Times: Monday-Sunday, 5-7pm
Where: 43 West 24th Street, Flatiron, Manhattan. richardsandoval.com/raymi
La Mar: If you ever felt that you needed to break the bank to dine at Gastón Acurio’s La Mar on Madison Square Park, guess again. Happy hour, at the downstairs bar, is rather inexpensive and includes many of the same dishes and cocktails on the main menu in smaller sizes. Veal heart anticuchos, two types of ceviche, jalea, and other snacks average around $8, while oysters are $2 a piece. There are seven cocktails offered for $7 each, including the obligatory pisco sours and chilcanos, as well as pisco punch and blue agave margaritas.
Time: Monday-Friday, 4-7pm
Where: 11 Madison Ave., Gramercy, Manhattan. lamarcebicheria.com.
Sushi Samba: Sushi Samba’s Samba hour changes monthly, sometimes focusing in on one of their three primary influences: Japan, Brazil, & Peru. When Peru is on deck you’ll find $6 pisco cocktail specials and $6 small plates like anticuchos, oyster jalea, and ceviches.
Time: Sunday-Friday, 4-7pm and 11pm-close.
Where: 87 7th avenue south & 245 park avenue south, Manhattan; sushisamba.com
Amaru Pisco Bar –The Jackson Heights spot from Pio Pio rotiserrie chicken empressarios is the city’s most pisco centric bar also has some great deals for select cocktails if you make it in early on weekdays, as well as $4 beers and $5 sangria. While there are not food discounts, most of their small plates (anticuchos, butifarras, empanadas, salchipapas, etc) are already set to the happy hour prices of Peruvian restaurants in Manhattan.
Time: Monday-Friday, 5-8pm
Where: 84-13 Northern Blvd, Jackson Heights, Queens; amarubar.com
Writer and photographer Nicholas Gill is the editor/publisher of New World Review. He lives in Lima, Peru and Brooklyn, New York. His work has appeared in publications such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, CondeNast Traveler, National Geographic Traveler, Afar, and Penthouse. Visit his personal website (nicholas-gill.com) for more information.
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