WELCOMED BY THE ELKANO TEAM, LIMA’S ICONIC CEBICHERÍA COMES TO GETARIA FOR ONE NIGHT
FROM THE PACIFIC TO THE CANTABRIAN SEA, TWO COUISINES UNITED BY THE SEA, WITH FISH AS THEIR COMMON LENGUAGE
On October 8, La Mar, the cebichería founded by Gastón Acurio in Lima, will take over Elkano restaurant in Getaria for just one night.
This will not be a four-hands dinner. For a few hours, La Mar will bring its cuisine, its atmosphere, and its way of celebrating around the table to Elkano. Anthony Vásquez, Head Chef of La Mar Lima and head of the brand’s Latin American operations, will lead the kitchen, supported by the Elkano team. Gastón Acurio will also be there for the evening, while the kitchen and front-of-house teams will be the true protagonists.
La Mar’s story began in 2005 in Miraflores, a neighbourhood of Lima overlooking the Pacific. Gastón Acurio created the restaurant to celebrate the tradition of the Peruvian cebichería and, through it, showcase the extraordinary diversity of ingredients, flavours, and cultures that come together in the country’s cuisine.
At its tables, cebiches, tiraditos and causas share the spotlight with anticuchos, marinated brochettes grilled over charcoal that are deeply rooted in Peru’s street-food tradition. Fish and seafood come together with ingredients such as ají amarillo, ají panca, ají limo, choclo, quinua and huacatay, shaping a cuisine deeply connected to the Pacific and to Peruvian identity.
What began in Lima gradually made its way to different parts of the world. Today, La Mar has ten restaurants across eight countries: four in South America (Chile, Colombia, Argentina, and Peru), three in the United States (San Francisco, Miami, and Bellevue), one in Doha (Qatar), one in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and, most recently, one in Madrid (Spain). Each location preserves the flavours and techniques that define La Mar’s Peruvian cuisine, while also incorporating fish, seafood, and other ingredients native to each region.
La Mar is led by Pepe Cárpena, who oversees the brand’s growth and its mission to bring the culture of the Peruvian cebichería to different parts of the world. Anthony Vásquez leads the kitchen at its flagship restaurant in Lima. A member of the team since 2010, he has earned Gastón Acurio’s trust, played a role in La Mar’s international expansion and is now also responsible for its Latin American operations. In 2025, he was recognised with a Knife Award by The Best Chef Awards.
In Getaria, Elkano has developed its own way of interpreting the sea. The restaurant was founded by Pedro Arregi and Marijose Artano and is now led by their son, Aitor. This family legacy has made it possible to preserve and pass on a way of observing, questioning and learning that was born around the grill and the fire.
Elkano’s cuisine belongs to the culinary landscape of Getaria, on the shores of the Cantabrian Sea and in the Bay of Biscay. It begins before the fish ever reaches the restaurant: at the harbour, in conversations with fishermen and net makers, in observing the seasons and in understanding an environment that is constantly changing.
Every species, every size, every origin and every moment of the year call for a different approach to the fire. The grill is the tool through which Elkano interprets its marine terroir, drawing on a body of knowledge built up over many years and shared by the people who live and work alongside the sea. Its grilled turbot, which has become one of the restaurant’s most recognisable dishes, encapsulates this approach to cooking: listening to the product, intervening only as much as necessary, and acknowledging the work of everyone who makes it possible for it to reach the table.
At Elkano, memory and Basque tradition are not understood as something static. They are passed down from one generation to the next and continue to evolve with the team, with each season and with everything the sea still has to teach.
La Mar’s arrival at Elkano will bring together two cuisines born in different latitudes and cultures yet connected by the same relationship with the sea and its produce.
The first was born in Lima around the tradition of the Peruvian cebichería and the produce of the Pacific. The second has taken shape in Getaria, on the shores of the Cantabrian Sea, around a family grill and a way of understanding fish through its species, season, and latitude.
At La Mar, the way the fish is cut, acidity, ají peppers and coriander come together to shape a Peruvian cuisine that also embraces the species and ingredients found in each of its destinations. Elkano expresses itself through the grill and fire and, when cooking away from Getaria, takes this knowledge with it, applying it to the fish and produce of each place it visits.
Now, La Mar will bring its culinary culture to Getaria to work alongside the Elkano team on a menu designed especially for the occasion. The identity of the Peruvian cebichería will meet the produce available in Getaria and its surroundings, giving shape to a menu that will also retain the informal, open and convivial character that is part of La Mar’s spirit.
On October 8, from 8:00 p.m., La Mar will take over Elkano for one night only. Reservations are open from today and can be made by phone on +34 943 14 00 24 or by email at reservas@restauranteelkano.com.