Known for their roasted and slow-cooked meats at Taqueria Ramirez, Tania Apolinar and Giovanni Cervantes partnered with chef Carlos Barrera to open a new seafood-focused wine bar this year. Here’s what a full day of prep looks like at El Camarón Peludo in the West Village.
First, fresh shrimp from Sinaloa, Mexico; Ecuador; and more locales are de-shelled and de-veined for three central shrimp dishes. Then, Cervantes starts the fresh salsa for the day, taste testing and comparing each batch to the salsa from last week to make sure the flavor is consistent. A bright red salsa is mixed with mayo to create the sauce on the camarones zarandeados, a shrimp version of a fish dish from the Pacific coast of Mexico that is usually grilled in a flat wire grill basket.
Upstairs, Apolinar prepares the wine bar for opening, laying out chilled seafood on ice in the window and wine bottles that will be placed in chilled buckets for service. She recommends sitting at the long, winding bar to watch the bartenders and chefs work.
Back in the kitchen, Barrera starts breaking down Spanish tuna for a creative tuna tostada layered with spicy mayo, fish eggs, habanero-lime oil, avocado, and crispy leeks. Then it’s taco prep, including the pescadilla (a deep-fried fish taco) and a shrimp taco with queso fresco, refried beans, and slices of roasted poblano peppers. Cervantes and Barrera prep the raw bar area, making salsa verde and salsa negro. The green salsa is made with parsley while the black salsa is layered with habaneros, piquin chile, and squid ink.
Cervantes explains that his original idea to pair the innovative seafood plates with bubbly wine turned into a natural wine bar, with El Camarón Peludo sourcing bottles from all over the world.