Bar Hotel Bolívar

The bar is inside the Gran Hotel Bolívar, the building that closes off Plaza San Martín on the Jirón de la Unión side, among high-ceilinged salons and period décor. Its signature drink is the pisco sour catedral, and El Comercio listed it in 2020 among the emblematic bars to drink one, highlighting the view from the balcony over the square. Besides cocktails and wine there is a food menu; lomo saltado shows up among diners' photos. Our take: you come for the place and the ritual of a pisco sour in a historic hotel, not for signature mixology; it is an essential stop for understanding downtown Lima. According to Google it opens at 3 p.m. and closes at midnight, and at 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays; it takes reservations. Curation note: the bar's Google listing is unclaimed and the hours come from it; the phone number is the hotel's reservations line.