Best Floor Show

Peña PachaMama

Comments (0) Wednesday, May 14 2003

Peña means "a circle of people coming together" and pachamama means "Mother Earth"; put the two together and you get an idea of what makes this Bolivian restaurant/nightspot so special. In the best mi casa, su casa global tradition, Peña PachaMama makes everyone feel like part of an especially fun-loving extended family. The venue's warmth and conviviality are exemplified in the regular Saturday night festivities, when the Sukay folk ensemble, the owners of the place, turns the small proscenium-arched stage into a high Andes Ed Sullivan Show. In addition to the hypnotic, exuberant music of Sukay and the native dancers undulating between the tables, expect entertaining contributions from the restaurant's staff: There's the bartender playing the charango, the pastry chef performing a dance step, the cocktail waitress leading an impromptu salsa lesson, and the maitre d' playing the panpipes and vocalizing like Yma Sumac. The restaurant hosts a variety of world, jazz, and folk musicians during the rest of the week, and the setting is as bright and colorful as the mood, with intricately etched icons and gilded, masked effigies guarding the entrance and the back bar.