Pop-up joints join to promote pisco

Chia's sours (60 yuan, or $9.60 a glass, 160 yuan for a pitcher) use Peruvian pisco as its base-his father is a distiller of the stuff-with lime or lemon juice, simple syrup, Angostura bitters and egg whites to put a frothy top on the stylish martini glass. The bar also offers a passionfruit pisco sour and some rotating specials, including a kiwi-fruit version and a hawthorn-flavored recipe for a little Chinese chic.

The happy-hour scene doesn't really extend to dinner service. "We joke that this is the place to come when you're on your way to Migas," Worker jokes with another flash of camaraderie.

And when they get to Migas' ceviche pop-up-which operates from Wednesday to Friday, there will be another guy named Francisco (Angotti) behind that bar. Migas' ceviche effort was conceived as a summer pop-up, but the space could become a permanent fixture if it's popular.

The pisco repertoire includes a summer treat that is not a sour, but has the deceptive sweetness of a liquid dessert. The Santa Sandia includes 60 ml of pisco plus fresh lime juice, sugar and fresh watermelon. It has a kick you don't feel right away. Of course, there are pisco sours too. The munches menu with three ceviches－classic, salmon-beetroot and marino (octopus and prawns)－plus other snacks with more seafood and some with meatier options inspired by the menu of Migas itself, right next door. Not to mention panther's milk.

Panther's milk?

"Who can resist that name－leche de pantera?" Angotti says, laughing. "It's really a chilled soup with purple cockles."

Surprisingly, like ceviche and a pisco sour, it's just perfect for a hot summer day.

If you go

Buena Onda

5:30 pm-1 am daily. The Container, near Tower 1, China Central Place, 6 Xi Dawanglu, Chaoyang district, Beijing.

Migas Cevicheria

Evenings Wednesday through Saturday. 6/F Nali Patio, No 81 Sanlitun Lu, Chaoyang district, Beijing.

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