Lady Bee

Lima

A showcase of Peruvian hospitality, ingredients and culture

There's been a constant hum about Lady Bee since its 2021 opening, and the noise is about to get a whole lot louder as the bar is awarded the Michter's Art of Hospitality Award.

At the core of the hive that Lady Bee has built are its founders: married duo Alonso Palomino – the bar's director – and chef Gabriela León, alongside her sister and bar manager Alejandra León, each of whom has a deeply rooted awareness and respect of their gastro-cultural heritage.

Academically, the team has taken the right flight paths in its mission to serve. Bartenders León and Palomino – the latter is also a pisco sommelier – studied hospitality, management and bartending, while chef León learned to cook at Lima's Le Cordon Bleu Institute as well as stages at world-renowned restaurants such as Copenhagen's Noma.

The Lady Bee experience begins in earnest when the doors open at 6pm with a warm and attentive welcome, which extends beyond the guests to every worker bee in the bar. Rather than a queen been mentality where one person is in charge, one of the main missions of its founders is a positive, democratic approach to community – and that starts with their own environment.

The team's circular approach to native produce is manifest in its menus. Take the Bloody Mary, which is topped with a juicy fresh scallop from Ica sourced via Pamela Lazarte – a marine biologist and owner of a company working with artisanal fisherman along the Peruvian coast. These same scallops appear a dish from chef León alongside fennel flowers, pears and Amazonian cecina (cured beef).

Or look to the Oca Mashua cocktail – a celebration of Peru's tuber heritage made with mashua (an Andean tuber from the nasturtium family) and red oca (a tuberous root vegetable with a tangy, lemony flavour) distillate crafted by agronomist and farmer Manuel Choqque, who has been raising tubers for more than 30 years in Huatata, Cusco. These same tubers are pickled at their season's peak and served up on plates of chicken Milanesa and as drinks toppers.

Historically, Lady Bee was only ever able to host 22 guests at once at its former Miraflores space, but in July 2025 the bar moved to a new and larger purpose-built premises in the trendy Barranco neighbourhood. With enhanced space came exacerbated challenges, including doubling the number of cocktail lovers the bar can accommodate and boosting the number of team members to deliver the exacting hospitality the team built their reputation on.

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