A restaurant in Jackson Heights called Urubamba — after an Andean folk band — has been a destination for New York City’s Peruvian American community since 1976.
Three generations of the Estorga family have served rotisserie chicken and traditional comfort foods beyond the better-known ceviche.
They cook up homestyle dishes like tamales, lomo saltado (a stir-fry of sirloin steak and vegetables), papas a la huancaina (potatoes in a spicy, cheesy cream sauce) and a variety of stews that make up the everyday Peruvian diet. There’s also a weekend breakfast plate that includes blood sausage, fried yuca, salchicha huachana (pork sausage) and scrambled eggs.
Urubamba has achieved a feat that has eluded most restaurants: generational success. It has withstood recessions, a pandemic and even a fire. And 48 years on, it still stands as a go-to spot for celebrating Peruvian holidays like Independence Day (July 28) or for simply enjoying a traditional Peruvian breakfast.
Every table at Urubamba was taken on a recent Sunday afternoon. The restaurant was abuzz with families, couples and friends chatting in Spanish, with snippets of English every now and then. Some of the customers had gone there as children and were now returning with their own families.
“It’s one of the few restaurants whose food has the true essence of our food,” said diner Roxana Cordoba. She and her husband left Lima in 1992, and have been dining at Urubamba at least twice a month, even after they moved an hour away to Glen Cove, Long Island.
“Every immigrant tries to find their food,” said Cordoba. “Thank God we found this restaurant. The food here tastes like home.”
“We have been serving three generations already,” said Alex Rojas, whose parents own Urubamba. He recalled serving the same families every weekend through the 2000s and his parents recognizing adult customers who’d been coming since they were children.
But it wasn’t so easy in the beginning. Julian Estorga, Maria Ruiz and…
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