Sargento Pimienta
Av. Bolognesi 757
Barranco - 998247015
http://www.sargentopimienta.net

RT here. I loved this club. It would go out of business immediately in the United States, mostly because I loved this club, and I am certainly not the prototypical club customer.

Luckily, this place is in Barranco, not Florida. It's your classic rock and roll club... You've got a big room with a stage along one wall, and a second, smaller room in the back. There's an upstairs balcony, which is probably good for band (and people) watching, but it was closed the night we went.

We visited on a Thursday at around midnight. No band, no cover. A very large beer for my date was 10 soles, and a bottle of water set me back two more.

The music? Well, they bill themselves as playing Rock from the 60s through today. And that's what they did during the hour that we were there: The Rolling Stones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Beach Boys, and some new stuff that I kinda knew, but couldn't tell you who they were. When we decided to leave, we wanted to wait until there was a song we could bear to walk out on, and it took four more songs.

The atmosphere was pretty laid-back, smoking was allowed, and I'm pretty sure that I smelled something burning that wasn't exactly tobacco.

Note that this is in no way a hooker bar. All of the customers were either couples or groups out to party. The crowd's age (except for me) was way, way under 30 years old. This is not a place that I would go to with any hope of picking up a girl, but luckily I brought my own with me. No one seemed to pay much notice to the old guy sucking face with his date. I may have been older than the average, but we certainly were not the only couple that couldn't wait to get home to show its affection.

I get the feeling that most nights, no band is the norm, but they had some flyers for band nights. It would be local groups, not any famous acts. For example, a Rolling Stones cover band was scheduled for one night (entrada: 8 soles).

Sgt. Pimienta is not on the strip with all the bars in Barranco (by the plaza), but a little bit away. The cabdrivers know Av. Bolognesi, and can get you about a block away from there.

To put the icing on the cake, the 'snack bar' is a branch of the sandwich shop Alf. The 'real' Alf is in Surquillo, and opens at 10 at night until early in the morning to accommodate the late-night munchies. And their sandwiches are delicious. The menu at the club branch seemed to be the same as the one in their flagship location.

I will go back to the club again... I like the music, and if the mood hit me to dance, well, its rock and roll, and even I can dance to rock without embarrassing myself. It's a good place to take a date -- if she's not into techno or stuff like that. The drinks are cheap, the music's good and it's not too loud to preclude conversation. And, you get to go somewhere that's off the gringo path.