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Sastrería Martinez

Lima

Lima speakeasy serving classic drinks with a Peruvian accent

One of the finest speakeasy entrances out there, the experience at Sastrería Martinez starts at a tailor shop door on a nondescript Lima street. Inside, it's full theme, with a tailor, tape measure in hand, sewing machine to their side, who – assuming they like the cut of your jib (they will) – shows you to the bar door. What lies beyond is one of the greatest scene changes in the drinks world: a stunning cocktail bar with poser tables and booths, illuminated by a glowing back bar and soundtracked by a band playing Latin American classics.

If he's in, debonair owner Diego Maceda, gussied up in his signature pinstripes, will take you to your table. This is his bar, his vision – to bring Lima its first speakeasy – but of course, this is a hidden bar with a real sense of place. The drinks may have a classical structure – perhaps even borrowing familiar names – but the flavours are outside of the usual bar-world ecosystem, Lima's too. It's only recently that gastronomic curiosity has seen chefs and bartenders explore beyond Peru's coastal regions to the rarer ingredients of the country's highlands and, further still, its Amazon rainforest.

There's so much to try, but a pisco drink is a good start. The Huaca Pietra also combines wine, vermouth, coca leaf, passion fruit, yacon honey, limón sidra and grapefruit bitter and is off-dry and refreshing. Or for something that blends two of Peru's biomes, there's the Cochinilla with rum, red prickly pear from the desert, cocona from the Amazon, along with beetroot liqueur, sanky cordial, lime and cacao bitters. 

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