Café

Café Tortoni, Buenos Aires, 1910


Many moments are born and re lived in the cafés of Buenos Aires: life stories, friendships, love, battles, sports, arts, etc., that’s why in a tango song that I like, the café is called "the school of all things."

In Buenos Aires, you can spend hours enjoying a “cortado” (short coffee) without the waiter asking if you’d like to order something else. The café moment is often long and comes with more than one activity: reading the newspaper, studying, meeting friends or work colleagues, talking, people watching, debating, etc. It's a ceremony.

Historically, cafés have been linked to the most famous Argentinian writers and artists who gathered there to discuss their ideas, read their stories and share their views on all aspects of life.

In 1998 a law was passed in order to preserve the cafés of Buenos Aires that are associated with significant cultural relevance for their age, architectural design and local character. As a result, some cafés got the title of "Notable Cafés of Buenos Aires".

While the flavor of coffee served in "Cafés Notables" is not as developed as those of most current cafés, the "Notable Cafes" have a story, a mythic, a je ne sais quoi that we invite you to discover.


* Café Tortoni *

Carlos Gardel, Quinquela Martín, Juan de Dios Filiberto, Alfonsina Storni, Marcelo T. Alvear, Federico Garcia Lorca, Arthur Square, Luigi Pirandello, Conrado Nale Roxlo, Xul Solar among others have passed through its doors.

Founded in 1858 by Mr. Touan, a Frenchman who named it in memory of Paris Tortoni. It was the first streetside café in Buenos Aires and Avenida de Mayo - where the café is located, was the first avenue in South America.

Address: Avenida de Mayo 825 / 29 Montserrat


* La Ideal *

Preferred by characters from the cultural, political and artistic scenes, it has two floors. On the ground floor is the coffee shop, on the first floor, the tango salon. Alan Parker filmed scenes from the film "Evita" there; Sally Porter did the same for "The Tango Lesson" and Carlos Saura's immortalized it in his tango shots including authentic, Porteño milonga dancers in the film "Tango".

Founded in 1912, by Manuel Rosendo Fernandez from Spain.

Address: Suipacha 384, downtown.


* Las Violetas *

Many political personalities, artists and sports figures have attended. Famous for its vitraux and delightful tea time.

Founded in September, 1884.

Address: Rivadavia 3899, Almagro


* La Biela *

You often have to wait for a table especially if you intend to sit outside, under the most beautiful Gomero tree on earth. The cafés privileged location facing the Church of Pilar in La Recoleta make a coffee there as desirable as a meal in the nearby Munich. In the 40’s La Biela was frequented by motorists who started and ended auto racing there.

Founded in 1850

Address: Avenida Presidente Quintana 600, Recoleta


* Alvear Hotel Bar *

Located on Avenida Alvear, Buenos Aires most elegant avenue, this café is a meeting point for people from Recoleta including politicians, entrepreneurs, artists and tourists.

Founded in 1932

Address: Avenida Alvear 1891


Post by: Valeria Mendez Cañas

Almost perfect

There are certain things that happen every day that prevent our country from being as good as it could be. You would easily notice these things if you visited.

People are always complaining for varied reasons. Protests are a common reaction to some sort of unjust treatment, some injustice. There is a contrast between people that accept and respect rules and those that don't. This is generally a reason for
arguments. In situations where you would expect to get a mature response from a citizen you receive the opposite.

For example, people here like to cut in line (at an airport, bus line, store, bank, etc.). Some will take your parking space even if you were there first. People will even take parking spaces reserved for pregnant women or handicapped individuals. When you stop at a red light or if you’re traveling in public transportation, you often get approached by people claiming to belong to an institution asking you to make a contribution. Sometimes they give a pretty good speech and convince you; even if they don’t, you somehow end up giving them money.

We’ve already covered the issue of disobeying traffic rules. It’s a classic.
Most of the time, you can get away with almost anything. If by some remote chance you do get stopped while doing something wrong when you’re driving, you will either be "invited" to bribe the police officer in order to avoid getting a ticket or get away with some lame excuse.

If you park your car on the street, you will be approached by "cuida coches" (unofficial car keepers) and be told to pay an arbitrary amount of money for a service that you have not requested (the service of looking after your car). Most of us will pay, as we care for our car and don’t want an angry car keeper taking out his anger on it, do we? If you don’t pay, you may find a scratch on your door, usually done with a key, pen or sharp object. Although illegal, no one is there to keep these people from doing this.

A typical way of protesting about an issue is to block streets and freeways (this method is also used by unions and student groups) and to make noise with their "bombos" (a local percussion instrument). Does this attitude solve anything? Do they think about the people that are stuck in the riot? Does it occur to them that these people could be late to work? Protesters would answer: "who cares!" and go on making more noise or, why not, burning a few tires.

This is pretty much a portrait of daily life in Argentina. Why could this be?

When Argentina started out as a nation in the 1800's, our leaders had clear
ideas, they wanted to become a modern, developed nation. Argentina had
a democratic government and democracy allowed an open debate on
important issues in a professional way. Democracy had made everyone more tolerant.

In the 1800's, it was thought that education, hard work and patience were
the way towards developing personally and as a Nation.

In the 1900's the government's capacity to exchange ideas deteriorated throughout all the different governments Argentina had – Conservative, Radical, Peronist, Military. Many leaders chose friendship, family ties and political loyalty instead of merit to fill government jobs. These decisions, among many others, took a toll and hindered the country’s true potential. These decisions drifted Argentines away from their road towards sustainable progress and order and put them on their way towards laziness, chaos and a desire for instant gratification. It is now that matters, and by being clever, we can achieve what we want, even if the means to achieve it it are not entirely right.

We call that "viveza criolla", the unofficial daughter of intelligence, it has
little to do with effort and a lot to do with individualism.

In a mature society that works well, institutions function as they should, jobs are
assigned to the people that are most qualified for them, values exist and
are respected, ideas are put into practice and education is highly valued.

Felix Luna, a famous Argentine historian once said he was unwilling to
write about certain topics in Argentinian history because it made him feel
ashamed. We have many virtues as a country. We are blessed in so many ways.

I wish we would just wake up and change our least appealing features for good.



Post by Valeria Mendez Cañas
Photo: Buenos Aires, 1920.