A tiny new wine bar on Cornelia Street in the West Village is putting shrimp front and center, literally in its name, and building an entire seafood-driven menu around it. El Camarón Peludo, which means the hairy shrimp, opened this year at 20 Cornelia Street from Giovanni Cervantes, Tania Apolinar, and chef Carlos Barrera, serving a menu that fuses Mexican seafood with Spanish touches and a rotating lineup of natural wine.
From Tacos to a Seafood-Focused Wine Bar
Cervantes and Apolinar are the duo behind Taqueria Ramirez and Carnitas Ramirez, known for roasted and slow-cooked meats, according to Eater. Taqueria Ramirez opened in Greenpoint in 2021, and the pair followed it with Carnitas Ramirez in the East Village in 2024, which won Eater NY's Best Counter-Service award that same year, per Eater NY. El Camarón Peludo marks a departure from those taco-focused spots, and Eater NY describes the project as a new West Village seafood wine bar carrying forward a great name. As Eater's earlier reporting on the restaurant's run-up noted, the long, narrow shape of the Cornelia Street space would not have worked for a taqueria concept, which helped push the team toward the current format.
Cervantes told the outlet his idea to pair innovative seafood plates with bubbly wine eventually developed into a full natural wine bar. He also described the kind of experience he wanted the space to offer, saying, “Here it's different. It's more about the experience of the space and the music and the wine,” in comments reported by Eater. That framing lines up with how the restaurant now operates: a walk-in-only room, tiny by design, with a long bar at its center and just a few small tables tucked in back, as The Infatuation describes it.
Shrimp From Sinaloa to Ecuador Anchors the Menu
Shrimp from Sinaloa, Mexico, Ecuador, and other locations appears in nine dishes built around the restaurant’s namesake crustacean, according to The Infatuation. One is camarones zarandeados, a take on a Pacific coast Mexican preparation that is usually grilled in a flat wire basket; here, shrimp is served with a bright red salsa mixed with mayonnaise.
What Import Data Can Tell Us
According to SeafoodSource, the USITC’s preliminary investigation found that eight of 13 responding buyers had purchased imported shrimp rather than U.S. product; six of those eight bought shrimp from Ecuador and India. That finding describes surveyed buyers, not year-by-year U.S. import volumes or country trends, and it does not establish who supplies El Camarón Peludo.
The menu also spans raw-bar plates and tostadas. Two house salsas accompany the raw bar: a verde made with parsley and a negro with habaneros, piquín chile, and squid ink. The Infatuation describes Barrera’s Spanish-style tuna tostada as silky bluefin with creamy avocado, chipotle mayo, and roe; the broader preparation also brings together spicy mayonnaise, fish eggs, habanero-lime oil, avocado, and crispy leeks.
Beyond the Raw Bar: Tacos, Tostadas, and Aguachile
Other plates include pescadilla, a deep-fried fish taco, and a shrimp taco with queso fresco, refried beans, and roasted poblano pepper. The Infatuation also singles out michelada-style oysters and crisp fried mackerel. Eat This NY named the tostada de atún its dish of the week, describing the restaurant as a new Mexican seafood wine bar in the West Village.
The room is designed to make the seafood and service part of the visit: chilled seafood sits on ice in the window, wine bottles are kept cold in buckets around the space, and Apolinar recommends a seat at the long, winding bar to watch the bartenders and chefs at work. Cervantes said the restaurant planned to source food from Spain, Japan, Mexico, and the United States, while its wine list draws natural bottles from around the world. The Infatuation’s fall openings guide had previewed the project as the people behind Taqueria Ramirez doing Mexican seafood in the West Village; it has since opened at 20 Cornelia Street.
