Last fall, Bar Vasquez opened in the spot that was most recently home to Pazo. I’m always looking for a good happy hour and the beautiful space is right around the corner from my office so of course I had to give it a try. Also, this is another Foreman Wolf restaurant so you know it’s going to be a winner.

The $5 cocktail when I visited was the June’s Gin Rickey – Beefeater Gin, Soda Water, and Lime. You’ll be hard pressed to find a more refreshing combo.

We also started with the Crispy Green Olives. Normally, I’m not a fan of olives – but when they’re deep fried and stuffed with cheese, I couldn’t get enough.

Next up was the Fuguzza which is an Argentinian style of flatbread over focaccia. This was super cheesy – everything I could ever want in a bite. The fuguzza was two types of cheese, peppers, roasted cauliflower, and wilted greens. We could not get enough of this.

Because bread with cheese is one of the best things that can go in your mouth, we also tried the Tostadas de Primavera. House made ricotta, herbs, lemon oil, fava beans, and sugar snap peas topped the toasted bread. This was such a refreshing bite and something I know that I’ll be coming back to for all of my future visits.

Also on the happy hour menu was the Duo of Empanadas. For me, empanadas are one of those dishes I order whenever I see them on a menu. And they aren’t on too many Baltimore menus (please leave me a comment with your favorite place to get an empanada). One of the empanadas was filled with queso which is basically the definition of a great empanada. Flaky dough and melted cheese oozing out with a little bit of red pepper – we inhaled this. The other empanada was stuffed with spiced pork sausage and it was also a great bite.

As of late, I’ve been on a bit of a salmon kick so we shared the Verlasso Salmon Ceviche. This blew all previous ceviches out of the water. The salmon was so creamy with a butter-like texture and perched atop creamy avocado and citronette sauce which had a nice bit of heat. There were also spiralized cucumbers and grapefruit in this dish – while I loved everything that we tried, this was by far my favorite.

Because we were at an Argentinean Steakhouse, it would be a crime to leave without trying at least one of their many steak options. Our waitress suggested the Solomillo de Pulmon Hanger Steak and it was really a beautiful cut of meat. We also ordered the Spicy Chimichurri for on top of the steak and it had a nice subtle heat.