Amaru
84-13 Northern Blvd., nr. 85th St.,
Jackson Heights; 718-205-5577
Every cocktail den north of Lima makes a pisco sour these days, but it took rotisserie-chicken kingpin Rodolfo Mayor of local Peruvian chain Pio Pio to dedicate an entire drinkery to the South American spirit. Jackson Heights gets the velvet-rope treatment as this narrow, brick-walled bar fills to capacity with a trendy, Latin-leaning crowd eager to sample its seventeen varieties of pisco. Ultrapremiums are served straight for clarified sipping; the rest are mixed into housemade concoctions created by one-time Apothéke bartender Esteban Ordõnez. The Chicha Morada Fizz ($10) bubbles up with egg whites, purple-corn juice, Pisco Portón, and bubblegummy Inca Kola; the signature Alturas ($10), meanwhile, is fashioned with Pisco 100, aloe vera, lemon juice, and a purée of prickly pear.
Pisco Slinger
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