The Blue Moon Restaurant

On one of my last days in Lima last August, I went to the Blue Moon restaurant in Lince. 

The Blue Moon has been there for decades.  Up until the late 1980s the building next to it was the location of the Ambassador cinema.  It was there that I saw Star Wars back in 1977.

As for the Blue Moon itself, it has long been a family favorite.   Liz and I ate there on Valentine's Day in 1988, and Mama Pali always enjoyed being treated to a meal there.

The restaurant used to be a somewhat upscale restaurant for its environs and limeno budgets.  Consequently, despite the quality of the food and environment, it had severe drop in clientele in the economic crises of the 1980s and the 1990s' "Fujishock".   The restaurant was probably kept afloat by cash infusions by its owner(s), and it was even rumored --most likely unfairly-- to have been used as a money-laundering front.  Who knows?

In any case, having survived the crises, in the 1990s the Blue Moon bowed to the economic circumstances and to the changing offerings in the Lima restaurant scene, and changing eating preferences among limenos, and shifted from an a la carte restaurant, to one specializing in a lunch buffet in addition to an evening a la carte menu. And what a buffet it is!

The emphasis is a bit different on different days, with some being heavier on the pastas, or on meat dishes, or on seafood preparations.   But there are always a selection of salumi made with such meats as ostrich, wild boar, venison, bison, etc, and dishes prepared with pheasant, rabbit, boar, alpaca, or vizcacha.   These can be preceded, followed, or mixed, as one prefers, with a number of seafood dishes and appetizers,  a multitude of cheeses and pickles, salads, and desserts.

On of the drawbacks of the arrangement is that to keep the number of settings as high as possible after making room for the buffet, they made an already cozy space even more crowded.  But it is not so tight as to be uncomfortable and there are usually enough tables open that parties can spread out and not feel that they're bumping elbows with their neighbors.

Now, quite apart from the great food, the Blue Moon's true calling card may be said to be the awe-inspiring bottle collection displayed along its walls.   The original owner was an avid collector of distinctive and classic bottles, and the practice has been continued.

There are, at last count, an amazing 20,000 soda and liquor bottles displayed in the restaurant.  Bear in mind, however, that that is only the collection on display.

There are many thousands of other bottles of wines and spirits which are on offer to customers and which are displayed on and behind the bar (seen in the photo above, at right), in racks along the ceiling, and crammed into almost every nook and cranny of the place.

It must be a terrifying place to spend an earthquake.




Blue Moon
Jr. Pumacahua 2520
Lince - Lima - Peru
http://restaurantebluemoon.com