BUENOS AIRES
petitions, protests and social media to drum up support.
The pandemic led to further extinctions of “notables” and many humbler local cafes. Buenos Aires’s residents, known as porteños, are notorious for adopting European and U.S. fashions. The thirst for socalled “third wave” coffee shops – contemporarystyled places with expert baristas, almond milk and vegan cakes – has altered the market.
On the upside, there have been significant reopenings and refits.
Over the last two decades, a family firm calling itself Notables acquired five old bars that were closed or at risk of closure. They redecorated them with oldschool fixtures and fittings, while offering menus of substantial fare. Going from Café Margot to Bar El Federal and then on to the Bar de Cao can induce mild déjà vu, as the interiors are quite similar. But beautiful spaces have been conserved, and five neighborhoods have retained their cherished coffeehouses.
“I always liked repairing things when I was a young man, from bicycles to furniture or old cars,” Notables director Pablo Durán says. “I bought a cafe with my dad when I was 20 and ever since I’ve had a passion for them.”
Owning a small chain, he says, helped the family weather the shutdowns imposed by COVID-19. “If we’d had only one outlet, we’d have been much more vulnerable during the pandemic. We shared a kitchen, menus and prices, and a takeaway service allowed us to survive.”
Old watering holes matter to people. As Cantini says, “The ‘notables’ are living witnesses to the fact the world recognizes Buenos Aires as a cafe city. These old cafes speak to their neighborhoods and to wider history.” Gentrification and redevelopment in Buenos Aires are largely unregulated. A moody old bar-cafe is like a reassuring old friend, and an invitation to visitors and porteños alike to remember this city once had a tango-soundtracked belle époque.
In his 1995 book “Cafes of Buenos Aires – A Report on Nostalgia,” historian Jorge Bossio writes, “First comes the tavern or inn, and then the café, where the conquistador reduces his life to conversations that help him overcome the solitude of America and the longing for Europe.” That’s a very Argentine poetic flight – just the sort of rumination that comes to writers when seated beside the windows of old cafes.
But it wasn’t only “conquistadors.” Like New York, Buenos Aires was a preeminent city of inward migration in the second half of the 19th century; its bars and cafes gave all who came a warm welcome, a decent espresso and a place to meet people or be alone, together.
They still deliver that service.
BAR BRITÁNICO
The city has many Italian and Spanish-style bars, but this is one of the few surviving joints with British connections. Railway workers arrived from England and Scotland in the 1850s, and Britain was a major investor in the meat trade. Británico’s name honors a group of British World War I veterans who lived in a nearby “pensión.” Ironically, during the 1982 Falklands War, the bar was temporarily renamed El Tánico (The Italian). Author Ernesto Sabato is said to have written parts of his magnum opus, “On Heroes and Tombs,” at the bar; the novel’s opening scene takes place in the park across the street that contains the monument to Pedro de Mendoza, first (and doomed) founder of Buenos Aires.
BAR DE CAO
This lovely cafe in the Notables group is still recognizable as an “almacén,” or general store, with the old cabinets once used for jars of oil and pickles now stocking wines from Mendoza province. The menu features Buenos Aires standards including milanesa (schnitzel) with fries, picadas (platters of cheeses and cured meats) and all manner of pasta dishes.
EL BOLICHE DE ROBERTO
Opened in 1893, this humble-looking bar has turned itself into an important platform for emerging young tango musicians and singers.
The walls are a riot of old paintings and dusty soda siphons, with chessboards available for the quiet afternoon hours.
CAFÉ TORTONI
Firmly on the tourist circuit, this grand establishment is nonetheless worth a visit. The Tortoni opened in 1858 and moved to its present address, on Buenos Aires’s most French-looking boulevard, Avenida de Mayo, in 1880. The interior is a rococo whirl of marble-top tables, gilt-framed mirrors, dark wood panels and Tiffany glass ceilings. The National Tango Academy and tango museum are on the floor above the cafe, which hosts gigs in the basement.
CONFITERÍA LA IDEAL
Opened in 1912, La
Ideal is a refuge of elegance and calm composure in the heaving, polluted downtown district. It reopened in 2022 after a six-year refurbishment of its sumptuous interiors, which includes French chandeliers, stained-glass windows, cedar boiserie and gold leaf-work. La Ideal has been used in several tango-themed films and regularly hosts “milongas” – dance lessons and practice sessions open to the public.
LA BIELA
On one of Buenos Aires’s most desirable corners, the prosaic name of La Biela – “connecting rod” – alludes to the many past customers involved in motor racing. Popular with well-heeled residents of Recoleta, La Biela does steak sandwiches and “French croissants.” The terrace is shaded by a huge, long-limbed rubber fig tree, much prized during Buenos Aires’s sultry summers.
LA BUENA MEDIDA
In La Boca close to the old port, this basic-looking bar, popular with workingclass locals, opened in 1905 just a week after the local football club, Boca Juniors, was founded. As well as coffee, beers and “cañas” (local firewaters), it serves food, including “parrilladas” – grilled meat with sausages and offal.
LA PUERTO RICO
Just a block away from the Plaza de Mayo, Argentina’s political nervecenter, La Puerto Rico is on Calle Alsina, one of the oldest streets in the city. The cafe opened in 1887, and a recent makeover has conserved the pared-down decor. The new owners have kept up the tradition of toasting coffee beans on-site. As in a lot of the old cafes, the menu features a range of “facturas” (pastries) with curious local names like “vigilante,” which resemble police batons, and “librito,” or “little book,” after the layered phyllo dough.