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“Coming Soon: Tutuma Social Club”

Sometimes you visit a place and you think, I’d like to come back here some time. Other times you think, I’d come but, back I’d also like to bring what’s here back home with me. That’s what happened when New Yorker Santina Matwey went to Lima, Perú for a visit last year. She fell in love with the food and with the lively social clubs known as peña where she listened to Afro-Perúvian jazz. Rather than leave her the experiences to her memories, she teamed up with Gabriel Alegría, a New York City-based jazz trumpeter of Peruvian descent and their vision—Tutuma Social Club—was born.

On April 29th, Matwey and Alegría will open the doors to Tutuma Social Club, a new restaurant/music venue in mid-town Manhattan that combines upscale Perúvian tapas with the best in live contemporary Latin and Afro-Perúvian jazz every night (no cover!).

To bring the flavors of Peru to life, Matwey hired two of her favorite chefs from Perú—Carlos Testino and Rodrigo Conroy. On their menu you’ll find hot and cold tapas including several ceviches and tiraditos, as well as classic causa (potatoes tossed with shrimp, octopus, crab and lobster), huancaina—a flavorful sauce used to slather all sorts of potatoes, corn and croquettes, wood-roasted rotisserie chicken wings with fried potatoes, prawns in ocopa (a peanut based sauce with rosemary, garlic and potatoes), and rocotos rellenos—stuffed hot Peruvian peppers with shrimp and cheese.

Main courses include arroz con mariscos (Peru’s take on paella made with cilantro rice), Tacu Tacu—a traditional “hangover” dish made from butter beans and rice topped with glazed pork ribs, and crispy pig’s ears. Sort of makes you want a hangover, doesn’t it?

Tutuma will open April 29th and is located at 164 East 56th Street (corner of 3rd Avenue), 1-866-988-5299.

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