Hostel restaurants don’t, as a general rule, evoke the laid-back cool of a hip tapas lounge. La Damajuana, then, the house bar and restaurant at Casa Yoses hostel in eastern San José’s Los Yoses neighborhood, is a refreshing, and tasty, change.

Since opening the doors of La Damajuana in 2010, Argentine Lucas Whithington, who previously had an Argentine-themed restaurant of the same name in Sámara on the Nicoya Peninsula, and his partners have built up a funky, relaxing space where both backpacking hostel guests and San José bar-goers can kick back, have a drink and enjoy a few rounds of internationally eclectic tapas.

“We wanted to offer a place where people, Ticos and foreigners, can get together and share art and each other’s culture, where everybody can be friends and where it is all based around our tapas,” Whithington said of himself and his two Tico partners. Together, the three own both Casa Yoses hostel and La Damajuana, which sits between the hostel’s two buildings.