Chances are you already know that Costa Rica doesn’t really have a Halloween scene. So, without the house-to-house trick-or-treat tradition, Halloween has evolved into an almost exclusively adult nightlife celebration.
It seems like Isaac Montero barely looks at the bar while he is assembling his equipment. He quickly stacks cocktail mixers, puts down tiny bottles of homemade cocktail bitters and fastens his black leather apron all while talking. Everything he needs is meticulously arranged to be at the reach of his hands.
I have fond memories of El Sotano. Sipping cheap red wine in the darkened room to the tune of an unbelievably talented Scandinavian cello master performing his jazzy craft along with a couple of equally-skilled local musicians. It could well have been 1920. On a more recent occasion I had the pleasure of seeing local punk band Ave Negra play a standout show to a roomful of rowdy fans.
