café | Wander Argentina

Las Violetas Cafe: Elegance in Almagro

Historic and elegant, Las Violetas café, patisserie and restaurant is an essential stop on any Buenos Aires café tour.

Now over 125 years old, Las Violetas remains extraordinarily popular. Every weekend afternoon tea-hungry diners form an orderly line outside its curved-glass doors to wait for one of the marble-topped tables.

Declared a Buenos Aires’ Heritage Site in 1998, Las Violetas is one of those Argentine institutions that refuses to die. Twice restored, and at one point practically abandoned, its struggles and subsequent revivals are emblematic of Argentine history itself.

High-Profile Visitors

The Felman and Rodriguez families founded the illustrious café, with its French stained-glass windows, ornate woodwork and Italian marble columns, in 1844.

Refined literary and political figures such as Carlos Pelligrini, who later became Argentine President, attended the grand opening. Other notable people who have rendezvoused here include tango great, Osvaldo Pugliese and politician, Felix Luna.

Uruguayan jockey and renowned sweet-tooth, Irineo Leguisamo was a regular at Las Violetas as noted by the cake bearing his name. A favorite on the menu today, the ‘Leguisamo’s’ mouthwatering ingredients include dulce de leche, meringue and almond cream.

Others had to visit more discreetly. The abuelas (grandmothers) of the Plaza de Mayo famously held meetings, disguised as birthday parties, at the café in order to plot retrieving their kidnapped or ‘disappeared’ grandchildren.

Las Violeta’s Revival

In the late 1990s, Las Violetas was hit hard by a combination of economic factors and was shut down for three years. The building was restored in 2001, and looking grander than ever, reopened that same year.

A birds eye view of the bustling, historic Las Violetas cafe — photos: Hernan Jourdan

Bustling yet sophisticated, white-jacketed waiters serve food on silver platters while visitors struggle to choose from a vast array of delicious cakes and pastries. Aside from their famed sweets, other options include savory snacks, an extensive wine list, cocktails and beer, plus a range of restaurant dishes thrown in for good measure.

Featured are the typical Argentine plates such as a tenderloin steak with mushrooms, grilled chicken, and some fish dishes such as simple hake, salmon with roquefort cheese and a three-colored vegetable pureé, and the ‘Martin Carrera salmon,’ served with shrimp, mushrooms and bacon. In a nod to the many foreign tourists, Las Violetas also features an American-style breakfast with bacon and eggs.

One classic yet pricey tea-time favorite is the María Cala, a cake, sandwich and pastry platter piled high with tempting goodies accompanied by fresh orange juice and tea, coffee or hot chocolate.

A better option for those looking to soak up the Las Violetas ambience without spending a fortune is an aromatic tea or coffee with a medialuna (croissant) or three. Penny pinchers should note that hot drinks come with a sweet treat, so there’s no need to order separately to sample a bite-sized cream or dulce de leche (sweet milk spread) laden pastry.

Those after a longer-lasting souvenir can step through a separate, yet equally ornate doorway to a crowded shop bursting with pastries, candies and ostentatiously wrapped gifts.

Las Violetas is open around the clock on the weekends and also has a delivery service, but this isn’t recommended for first timers. The building, complete with colorful stained-glassed windows, Italian marble floors and gossiping grannies is an essential part of the Las Violeta’s charm. —Rosie Hilder

⇒ Take a Three-hour private tour of Buenos Aires’ most historic cafes

Las Violetas-$$$$
Av. Rivadavia 3899
Almagro
Tel: 4958-7387

• Cafe and Confitería hours:
Sun -Thurs: 6 a.m. – 1 a.m.
weekends & holidays: open 24 hours

Panadería (pastry shop) hours:
6 a.m. – 10 p.m. daily

•Credit cards accepted
•Getting there: Castro Barros stop on the subway’s A line.

*Note: There are two prices on the café menu. Las Violetas is more expensive after 4 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. It’s no coincidence that the costlier menu coincides with the perfect time for a spot of afternoon tea.

Bar Británico: San Telmo’s Historic 24-Hour Hangout

Among the mythical dive bars of Buenos Aires is San Telmo’s enduring Bar Británico.

The corner bar facing Parque Lezama first opened in 1928 as ‘La Cosechera’ (The Harvester). From the beginning it was a gathering place for English World War I veterans and railroad workers who lived in the area.

It wasn’t long before ‘Bar Británico’ became an obvious name for this Anglo-Saxon meeting place and in the 1930’s the name was changed to reflect the predominate clientele of the era.

The ‘Tres Gallegos’

Bar Británico really earned its reputation as the iconic corner cafe of Parque Lezama beginning in 1959 when it was taken over by three Galician immigrants, Pepe Miñones, José Trillo and Manolo Pose. The three humorous Gallegos as they are collectively called, would remain for the next four and a half decades.

From the beginning the three cultivated an atmosphere welcoming writers looking for a place to scribble and smoke for hours on end and intellectuals who played epic games of chess. Writer, Ernesto Sábato was said to write part of his 1961 novel, ‘Sobre Héroes y Tumbas’ (‘On Heroes and Tombs’) at his pocked wood table by the window.

During the Malvinas/Falkland War, the first three letters of the bar’s name were camouflaged to alter the name to the much less controversial — if nonsensical — ‘Bar Tánico.’ The sign stayed that way for years until the anti-English sentiment faded and the three letters were once again uncovered on the awning outside.

In 1998 Británico was one of the first bars elected for its cultural significance as a ‘notable bar’ by the Buenos Aires’ city government.

The Eviction

In 2006 the existence of Bar Británico was threatened, stirring up a controversy of typical porteño proportion. The three Galicians were evicted after the owner of the building died and his son, Juan Pablo Benvenuto, decided the place could be fixed up to fetch a higher rent.

The community was outraged –- the Galicians had rented the bar from the same family for decades without a formal contract –- but it was true that the bar hadn’t been reformed since the 1950’s. The floor was missing tiles, the bathrooms were a disaster, and decades worth of dust covered the copious amount of knick-knacks around the bar.

Neighbors held protests, collected signatures, started protest blogs and facebook groups to save the bar and the livelihood of the three Galicians who had watched many of them grow up.

Enough signatures were collected that the city’s Culture Secretary intervened to see if the building’s owner could come to an agreement with Miñones, Trillo and Pose. The three, at this point elderly gentlemen who shuffled across the floor to take orders thanks only to the force of will, said that if they had to go they at least wanted to pass the bar on to people within their inner circle, including one waiter who had worked there for 25 years.

Thanks to the building’s listing as one of the city’s ‘historic heritage site’ and the cafe’s ‘bar notable’ status the owner was impeded from changing the character of the interior but the three Spaniards had no legal recourse to remain as the bar’s owner-operators and were forced to retire.

The Británico of Today

Six months after the ousting of the Galicians, Bar Británico was reopened under new management, who purchase the rights to continue using the same name.

New visitors probably won’t miss the Británico of old –- you can still sit at a sidewalk table and watch the people coming and going from Parque Lezama, or park at a window seat and nurture Porteño neurosis with one coffee after another. The menu and the food are admittedly as uninventive and average as ever.

Británico’s new owner, Agustín Souza refurbished the original wood bar, replaced the plumbing, electricity and floor tiles. The coffee is the same –- Souza buys the same brand as the former owners. The prices are certainly higher, but there’s no telling if that’s solely due to wacky inflation or a concerted effort to capitalize on the foreign tourists coming by to see one of the locations for the film ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ and get whiff the Buenos Aires’ of yesteryear.

Some neighbors still maintain the attitude of scorned lovers toward Británico — they say it was once ‘their place’ and now they don’t belong — the grumpy decrepit charm is gone, they can’t even stop by to use the bathroom like the always did and without the grandfatherly Galicians, the very soul of Británico has been sucked away.

Sentimentality aside, Británico lives on, and former customers can hope that after 45 years of tending bar, the Tres Gallegos are enjoying their involuntary retirement.

Souza, an inexperienced bar owner, concedes that he has very big shoes to fill. “It is a lot of work. There were three of them and I’m only one person,” he says.

He also keeps the bar open 24 hours a day, save Tuesday mornings, restoring Brtitánico’s former reputation as the night owl’s old San Telmo standby.

“ We don’t have as much business at night but there is definitely a steady stream of people — there are journalists, painters, and taxi drivers — pretty much people from all walks of life.”

⇒ Take a Three-hour tour of Buenos Aires’ most historic cafes

Bar Británico-$$
Brasil 399 (corner of Defensa)
San Telmo
Tel: 4361-2107

• Hours: Open 24 hours a day, except Tues when it’s closed from 12:00 a.m.—8:00 a.m.
• Cash only

Matilda’s Cafe – A Slice of Americana in San Telmo

*Editor’s Note: This cafe is now closed.

Matilda’s is a precious, Americana-style lunch cafe catering to those looking for a latte and chocolate chip cookie instead of the usual Argentine breakfast of espresso and a sweet croissant.

The homey aromas and colorful cupcakes, muffins and chocolate cake displayed in the window of the tiny storefront seem to magically hook the pedestrians walking along Chile Street. Once drawn inside by the goodies, the American-style decor, with flowered red, white and blue wallpaper and whitewashed wood makes one feels as though they’ve stepped into small-town U.S.A.

Here you’ll find truly frothy lattes, roast beef sandwiches, a variety of bagels (even with the normally hard-to-find lox), flavorful soups served with a chunk of homemade bread, and fresh lunch salads that are gourmet compared to the Buenos Aires’ standard of lettuce, tomatoes and onions.

The prices are reasonable for fresh homemade food — salads go for AR$18, scones for AR$4, and sandwiches and wraps run between AR$12-18.

Argentine owner, Natalie Martino has an established track record on the Buenos Aires restaurant scene. With her British-born husband she already runs two wildly successful businesses; Gibraltar, San Telmo’s most enduring watering hole for foreigners and the Argentines that love them, and Bangalore, a pub and curry house in Palermo.

Matilda’s, named after her beloved Old English sheepdog, is Martino’s first independent venture. Although only open since June 2009, it is already a regular stop for expatriates looking for a taste of home, local office workers on lunch break and globetrotters passing through the ‘Republic of San Telmo.’

Martino and the other Matilda employees must be saints—three to five people can be found behind the tiny counter at any one time, performing a multilingual ballet as they maneuver around each other while preparing orders.

Matilda’s specializes in food to go —there is only enough seating for a small handful of people, but if you’re lucky, grab a spot at the Patagonia-style communal table, where you can linger over the newspaper and a Thai iced coffee. There are also a few stools along a wall counter to perch oneself and strike up a conversation with a random stranger or salivate over the variety of desserts on display.

Buenos Aires’ relatively new trend of coffee-to-go is a bit disappointing if one considers the environmental impact, but one more reason to love Matilda’s is that they give a ten percent discount to visitors who bring their own cup or Tupperware.

Matilda’s — $$
Chile 673 (near Chacacubo)
San Telmo
Tel: 4300-2216

• Hours: Mon-Fri, 9 am —6 pm
• Cash only

Post Data — A Postal Themed Cafe in Recoleta

* Editors Note: This cafe is now closed.

A postal themed cafe and pastry shop a stone’s throw from the tombs of Recoleta cemetery, Post•Data is so twee and wonderfully decorated that Hansel and Gretel are probably regular customers. Pretty stamps form the stripes on the wallpaper, old postcards and letters dangle from the ceiling as mobiles and vivid colors glisten on the desserts in the pastry case. The chatty staff are clearly passionate about their workplace and happily offer samplers and recommendations.

The timing of the opening of Post•Data at the end of 2009 was brave. It was the beginning of a sticky summer that saw most city-dwellers flee to the sea, with swine flu and economic problems affecting tourism and the willingness of locals to part with their pesos. But today, thanks to word of mouth in lieu of advertising, the cafe is steadily building a loyal clientele.

The postcard shaped menu has an extensive list deli style options; bagels, wraps, sandwiches and salads, each named after a global destination. Two of the menu’s best dishes are the York; roast beef, caramelized onion, pickle and mayonnaise and the Copenhagen; smoked salmon, herby cream cheese, sun dried tomatoes and arugula. Those in search of bagels will be pleased with the variety here: Parmesan, sun dried tomato, poppy seed, onion, sesame seed, vegetarian, wholegrain, garlic and last (and probably least), plain. To wash it all down try the juices made with hard-to-find fruits brought in from Colombia including mango, passion fruit, soursop and mulberry.

As good as the main dishes are, only a militant dieter would bypass dessert here. The pastries, mousses, macaroons, cookies, cakes and crumbles are hard to resist, some are topped with gravity defying whipped marshmallow frosting whilst others ooze the thick, caramel-like local specialty, dulce de leche. Continuing the international theme, Post•Data also offer Argentine interpretations of Belgian chocolates, American cupcakes and even fortune cookies.

At Post•Data, it is the little touches that add charm, such as the hand-crafted British red telephone boxes in which you receive your bill and the ‘postal packaging’ for the take away goodies. A post office themed café in Recoleta may seem like just a quaint gathering place for the elderly senoras of the neighborhood, but with the attentive service and delicious homemade snacks, Post•Data delivers on its motto of ‘a sweet message’.

— by George Warren

Post•Data – $$
Azcuenaga 1739
Recoleta
Tel: 4803 0496

•Wifi
•Hours: 9am-8pm (Monday-Wednesday)
9am-10pm (Thursday – Saturday)

Jolie: A Pretty Belgrano Bistro

Jolie Bistro is a modern, and indeed, pretty café/bistro where art and French cuisine come together in Belgrano’s lovely Plaza Castelli area.

Jolie suffered some mixed reviews after it first opened in 2008, but they seem to have worked through their growing pains and now it functions with precision. Service is prompt and cordial and the creatively presented dishes come steaming out of the kitchen in record time.

Characteristic of a bistro, the daytime menu is not too varied but you’ll find the usual sandwiches, a nice little selection of salads, and a tempting list of daily specials. Daytime entrées include risotto with shitake mushrooms and perfectly cooked hand-made raviolis with creamed pink sauce.

Alluring on a pleasant day are the comfortable outdoor tables facing the plaza. Or go inside and grab the loveseats, hand-painted by local designer, to relax while gazing out at the nannies and dog walkers taking spins around the plaza. After the lunch rush, you’ll find local workers with their laptops taking advantage of the free wifi and enjoying afternoon tea with a delicious handmade scone or brioche.

True to French styled savoir-faire, quality trumps quantity here; portions are somewhat sparse. Luckily the desserts are tantalizing. Try the passion fruit mousse, or for endorphin-seekers, the creamy chocolate mousse or white chocolate cake with nutella.

In a nifty ploy to merge food and art, Jolie offers limited edition take-home plates. Every month the restaurant selects a piece of contemporary art to display in the dining room; the chefs then create a new dish inspired by the artwork. The monthly entrée is served on a plate with an autographed serigraph of the artwork for diners to take home. Only 50 of the plates are available each month and for the cost of the entrée you get the take home crockery, making it easy to understand why the neighbors rush back very month.

At night, Jolie turns down the lights and celebrates haute cuisine with the owners overseeing every detail. The price of your bill will double after sundown, but with the demure candlelight and open acoustics that encourage cozying up to your cohort, it’s a night time date destination that won’t disappoint.

En fin, Jolie is a bistro that lives up to its name.