Manuel Torres will never have TV’s playing in the background of his restaurant. He’s willing to lose money on a meal if it elevates the experience. He’s even offered discounts to guests who promise to keep their phones off during the meal. These aren’t quirks, they’re convictions. What he built is El Serrano, a 24,000-square-foot Spanish colonial landmark on Columbia Avenue that is, at its heart, a statement that people need beauty, good food, and above all, need each other.
Manuel was 19 years old when he arrived in America with his older brother. He started in factories, working two or three jobs at a time. His first food venture was a travel trailer converted into a Tex-Mex stand at the York Fair.
“I wanted to give back to this country,” Torres says simply.
The Food, the Family, the Flavor
Lancaster has come to know and love its Peruvian food scene, but before Chelas Arepa or Francisco’s, Torres was already here, introducing this city to the complexity and warmth of Peruvian cuisine.
The menu at El Serrano is rooted in family recipes, dishes largely designed by Torres’s sisters, who built it with the kind of care that only comes from people cooking food they grew up eating. Torres himself attended The Restaurant School in Philadelphia, completed an externship at Le Bec-Fin, and traveled to Europe to study tapas.
Peruvian food, like Peru itself, is complex. It carries the influence of distinct geographical regions, waves of immigration, and centuries of colonial history. On the plate, that means more potatoes, and peppers that bring depth of flavor without punishing heat. “People would be surprised,” Torres’ wife says, “by the deep meaning and story behind the dishes.”
A Place Inspired by Community
The inspiration for El Serrano goes back to the day Torres first stepped inside El Monasterio, a 16th-century seminary in Cuzco, Peru. Something about the weight and beauty of that place stopped him. He wanted to give people here the same sense of wonder, history, and belonging.
El Serrano first opened in York County in 1987. Seven years later, Torres opened a second location in Lancaster, taking over a nondescript nightclub on Columbia Avenue and transforming it into something with no equivalent in Lancaster. The Spanish colonial exterior is stucco and rustic wood. Inside, visitors move through spaces furnished entirely with chairs, tables, tiles, lighting fixtures, stained glass, and metalwork handcrafted in Peru, most of which are carved by the woodworkers Torres employs at his wood shop in Peru.
“Everything you see in the building is handmade,” Torres says.
There are dining alcoves built into the walls, intimate spaces that are perfect for a quiet dinner. Hidden rooms lie behind secret doors set into bookcases. The second story looks down on a carefully landscaped courtyard surrounded by a covered piazza. Moving through El Serrano, says Manuel, “is like walking through the history and culture of Peru.”
Pisco, Wine, and a Bar Unlike Any Other
The bar at El Serrano is built around a spirit most Lancaster diners weren’t familiar with before Torres brought it here. Pisco, a grape-based brandy native to Peru, is the national drink of Peru, and Torres makes his own. Finca El Serrano Pisco is handcrafted from grapes grown, fermented, and bottled in Peru, then exported to the U.S. It imparts, as Torres describes, a unique aroma and character that distinguishes it from anything else on a local bar menu. El Serrano is currently the only bar in Lancaster selling it.
The cocktail menu is built on that foundation: Pisco-ritas, Pisco-tinis, Pisco-jitos, and the Peruvian classic Pisco Sour, made with goma syrup, the traditional way.
Heather, Manuel’s wife, oversees the family’s two wineries, and she brings to that work the same depth of feeling her husband brings to the restaurant. “Wine isn’t just a beverage,” she says. “It’s geography, literature, botany, and biology in a bottle.”
The American Dream, Still Being Built
When I asked an employee to describe Manuel Torres, she didn’t hesitate: “He’s the most generous and humble man I’ve ever met.”
El Serrano is not the kind of place you rush through. It rewards lingering, a second Pisco Sour, a slow walk past the fountains, a peek at the room hidden behind the secret bookcase door. Manuel Torres designed it that way on purpose, with the conviction that beauty, food, and good company are not luxuries but necessities. As a Lancastrian, I’m glad he chose to build it here.
