New NYC seafood wine bar highlights Mexican dishes and natural wines

Eater reported on the opening of El Camarón Peludo, a new seafood-focused wine bar in New York City's West Village. The restaurant is a collaboration between Tania Apolinar, Giovanni Cervantes, and chef Carlos Barrera, known for their previous work at Taqueria Ramirez.

The kitchen prepares a variety of seafood dishes including a stacked tuna tostada with spicy mayo, fish eggs, habanero-lime oil, avocado, and crispy leeks, as well as shrimp dishes like camarones zarandeados, shrimp tacos, and aguachile. Fresh shrimp sourced from Sinaloa, Mexico, Ecuador, and other locations are carefully prepared for these dishes.

Cervantes and Barrera also create unique salsas such as salsa verde made with parsley and salsa negro featuring habaneros, piquin chile, and squid ink. The restaurant emphasizes pairing these innovative Mexican seafood plates with natural wines sourced from around the world.

Upstairs, Apolinar prepares the wine bar by arranging chilled seafood on ice and placing wine bottles in chilled buckets. She suggests guests sit at the long bar to observe the bartenders and chefs at work, enhancing the dining experience.

The team’s original concept to pair seafood with bubbly wine evolved into a natural wine bar, reflecting a global selection of wines that complement the flavor-packed seafood offerings at El Camarón Peludo.