Jazz in Buenos Aires at Thelonious Club

If you are looking to spend a night in a setting of utmost Buenos Aires cool, check out the famed Palermo jazz club, Thelonious. This bar features live jazz bands Wednesday through Sunday nights, starting at 9:30 pm. On Friday and Saturday nights there are two bands in the line-up. Thelonious, named after the legendary American jazz pianist, is not a place to hear second-rate jazz. The performance on any given night will enrapture you with the energy, talent, and improvisational skills of the musicians.

Cover fees range from $7 to $15 depending on the night: you can check their website, call for more information about that night’s particular show (4829-1562), or stop by Thelonious to pick up the current month’s schedule.

Reserve a table for a night of elegance and spectacular jazz

In order to make sure you have a space to sit and view the musicians, you should call ahead and reserve a table. They will hold it for you until 9:30pm, when the music is supposed to start (I say “supposed to” because this is Argentina and nothing starts exactly on time).

If you come with a date, you’ll get a cozy table for two; bigger groups get couches and coffee tables; otherwise you can pull up a stool at the bar or even hang out on the stairs leading to the upper level. The place is small, so get there early if you don’t have a reservation. Your experience will be much more enjoyable if you have a seat, as the jazz sets are often quite long (an hour and a half on average).

Sip on a cool cocktail in the color of your choice

Located in a fairly posh part of Palermo, near Plaza Guemes and its lovely Our Lady of Guadalupe church, Thelonious club is usually packed with smartly-dressed Buenos Aires hipsters, old-school jazz fans, and foreigners visiting the city. It’s okay to be casual, but if you are looking for somewhere to show off your trendy new Palermo boutique finds, this is the place.

Everybody checks each other out, wondering who is going to be having drinks with the band after the show. So make sure you order a fashionable drink, like the local-standard Fernet and coke (AR$11), or one of Thelonious’ colorful cocktails, such as a daquiri (AR$13, made with fresh lemon), or a frozen mojito ($13, bright green due to the blended mint leaves).

Thelonious offers a very complete list of cocktails, and some creative ones, like the Keith Richards: vodka, lemon, and sugar (AR$13). Of course, if you are on a budget, be glad that you are in Argentina and you can share a bottle of El Portillo Malbec with some friends for AR$24, or a Lat 33 for AR$27. To impress your date go for one of the Salentein Robles (AR$53). And if you’re just a regular beer guy, grab a bottle of Heineken (AR$8) or Guinness (AR$10).

Thelonious, a recycled building decorated with a special touch

The atmosphere alone at Thelonious is reason enough to stop by. As with many modern restaurants and bars in Buenos Aires, Thelonious is a “recycled” rendition of an old house. One special feature of Palermo architecture that you will see at this club is the bare brick ceilings. Above the stage hangs a light fixture consisting of subdued yellow light bulbs twisted every which way like an unruly nest of wires.

The place is designed to be a live music venue, with low-wattage spot lighting placed strategically around the premises. The sturdy bar seems to be made of adobe, and it has built-in lights that cast a glow on the face of your date as he or she absorbs the frenetic bleeps and bloops of the trumpet or the whirring drum rhythms.

Whatever act is on at Thelonious, you can be assured that it’s a respected, nationally or even internationally acclaimed group of artists who dedicate themselves to their instruments. Depending on the artist, the songs may be original compositions with influences from classical jazz, modern rock, and Latin American musical genres, or they might be renditions of standards from the likes of John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie. The late-night bands on Fridays and Saturdays are more the dance-and-groove types, while the weekday night bands are better for listening and watching attentively.

Worth an after-dinner visit, for an evening of musical bliss

Even if you aren’t a jazz aficionado, Thelonious Club is pretty much sure to guarantee a unique and interesting evening. The service is not especially warm but it is certainly professional and efficient. It’s best to eat before the show (or after, at the café on the corner of Salguero, which is open late), but if you come hungry, you can order simple pizzetas for between AR$10 and AR$12, or a cheese plate (tabla de quesos) for AR$15.

Thelonious also offers desserts, making it a great place to bring your date after an early dinner. Try their gooey chocolate brownie with walnuts and vanilla ice cream (AR$12), or simply a coffee or tea (AR$3). Possibly one of the best after-dinner drink choices on the menu is the Irish coffee, which is affordable (AR$7) and deliciously sweet with a kick of liquor. Or for an even more elegant dessert, cozy up to a bottle of Chandon champagne (AR$48) to enjoy the jazz in true style.

A place like Club Thelonious could exist in any fashionable international city: New York, London, or Paris. But in the tastefully decorated upstairs space of Thelonious, surrounded by eclectic people from all over the world, sipping Malbec with good company, you will be glad you are watching a jazz show in Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires Argentina Guide Special Tip

To repeat, to avoid disappointment at the small, usually packed Thelonious Jazz Club, make sure you reserve a table ahead or get there early – definitely before 9pm. That way you won’t miss out on an excellent night of cool jazz grooves in Buenos Aires.

If you consider yourself a hipster, an intellectual, an artist, or just too cool for categorization, come join the club at El Taller. This multiespacio – a word used in Buenos Aires to describe a multi-functional space – in this case with a bar, café, art space, and discussion salon, was one of the first businesses to appear in Plaza Serrano in the mid-1980s.

El Taller has made beautiful use of the building by carefully placing framed artwork all over the walls. You could spend an hour just gazing at the art, taking in each piece separately and letting yourself be inspired or intrigued by the various Argentine artists. The bar is open from 9am to 2am Mondays through Thursdays; and until 3am on Fridays, Saturdays, and holidays [and in case you didn't know, in Argentina there's a holiday every, oh, two weeks ].

An activity for every kind of creative urge at El Taller

El Taller translates as “the workshop”, and the bar is so named because it offers various classes, seminars, and clubs in this space. On Monday nights there is a philosophy club, on Saturday early afternoons there is a yoga class, and they also have various theater workshops.

Stop by the place or give them a call (4831-5501 from within Buenos Aires) to inquire about what ongoing activities there are at the moment. Or if you yourself are an artist or intellectual, why not contact them to see if you can offer a class? This would be a great place to really experience porteño culture, if you speak Spanish. Hear and join in with the philosophy discussion in order to get the scoop on what intellectuals in one of the world’s biggest, most dynamic metropolises have to say about the meaning of life.

Kick back with some booze or a coffee, or grab a bite

If you’re looking for a peaceful café to relax in, El Taller is just the spot. The wall art and wide spaces with high ceilings create a calming feeling as you sip coffee, beer, wine, or a cocktail.

The drink prices are not so bad compared to other places in Plaza Serrano or Palermo Soho in general: a chopp (small mug) of Argentine beer will run you AR$5.50; glasses of wine can be as low as AR$4.50 and bottles as low as AR$10. Meanwhile, colorful cocktails are AR$8.50 and upward, and for those that like to keep a clear head during heated philosophical debates, coffees come in between AR$3 and AR$5.

El Taller is probably best for visiting with friends over drinks or some light picadas (platters of ham, cheese, olives etc), but if you are hungry the kitchen offers Argentine standards such as pastas, crepes, pizzas, lomitos (thin lomo steak sandwiches), salads with plenty of fresh vegetables, omelettes, chicken sandwiches, and hamburgers (with a few different bread options). All pretty run-of-the-mill, decent fare.

Join some friendly and eclectic people for an afternoon snack or lunch

The service at El Taller is pretty punctual, but far removed from what you might find in some corporate restaurant. The staff is friendly and energetic and happy to tell you about the various workshops and classes going on, or to give you guidance with the menu.

To sum up, El Taller is a great showcase of current intellectual and artistic trends in Buenos Aires, one of the cultural capitals of the world. It is a great place to visit just once, or to become a regular, depending on what your interests are. Whether you come to the city with friends, significant others, or family, you will find that it is worth a visit to this Plaza Serrano favorite just to absorb the atmosphere and observe the diverse clientèle.

El Taller: The Verdict

• Overall cafe rating: (3/5) This is a great place to have a drink on your way to dinner or spend an afternoon writing in a journal. However, the activities offered by El Taller are probably going to appeal more to long-term visitors to Buenos Aires, expats, or locals.
• Buenos Aires Authenticity Factor: (3/5) El Taller is one of the oldest cafes in the plaza, and it represents the cultural revolution that has been taking place in modern-day Buenos Aires.
• Value: (4/5) For the location and the beautiful décor, this café is worth spending some time and money getting to know it – but remember this is Plaza Serrano, a tourist hotspot, so don’t expect bargain prices.

Buenos Aires Argentina Guide Special Tip

Make your trip to El Taller into a day outing at weekends when the plaza filled with artisans displaying their hand-made crafts. You can wander around Plaza Serrano for an hour or two and then rejuvenate with a coffee and some medialunas at El Taller, before wandering more among the shops and boutiques of Palermo Viejo.

[Photo Credit: Villamota]

El Federal: People watch, relax, socialize, or dine

Grab a buddy and head to El Federal, one of Buenos Aires’ most beautiful and classic cafes (in operation since 1864), for a relaxing afternoon coffee, lunch, or dinner. It’s a pleasure to sit in this café and admire the vintage ads decorating the walls, under a glow of soft yellow lights. Bar El Federal is a perfect example of how the city has made an effort to preserve its cultural patrimony by maintaining old establishments in good condition.

El Federal also has a beautiful lowered bar (giving you the strange perspective of looking down on the bar staff) with an amazing carved wood and stained glass arching mantel above (see photos later in this post), an open kitchen which you can sneak a glance into if you sit in the back, two rooms full of sturdy wooden tables, and even a quaint little bookstore hidden within. The crowd is a mix of porteños relaxing with friends and family, tourists with their heads buried in Lonely Planet guide books, and eclectic San Telmo ‘locals’ from all over the world.

A classic café with cuisine that suits all tastes

Sit down at one of the tables and eventually a waiter in a crisp white shirt and black pants will bring you a menu longer and denser than a Borges novel. Whatever your appetite is calling for, Bar El Federal has it, and it will be prepared with fresh, simple ingredients. In general, their offerings fall into the category of cocina porteña: Italian favorites such as fresh homemade agnolottis, spaghettis and raviolis topped with tomato, pesto, or cream sauces; pizzetas with any imaginable toppings, milanesas, hamburgers, omelettes, and sandwiches.

[Photo Credit: Paula Moya]

Allow me to elaborate on the topic of sandwiches, because this cafe tops the charts in the vast quantity and variety of sandwiches you can choose from. You’ve got an entire half-page in the menu dedicated to turkey sandwiches, which is not really common in Buenos Aires. Then there’s the medialunas rellenas, which are croissant sandwiches filled with cheese, ham, and other ingredients. They have traviatas, a sandwich made with crackers instead of bread, for a lighter option. You can choose from classic sandwich ingredients such as ham, cheese, salami, steak, sausage, hearts of palm, and more.

Worth mentioning are the picadas, large plates of finger foods that are served with bread baskets and make a wonderful light but satisfying dinner with some wine. El Federal offers some especially creative selections, such as sautéed eggplant, fried raviolis, peanuts, walnuts, olives, ham, cheese cubes, and goat cheese. The picadas are a great choice if you aren’t in the mood for a hot meal, and they are ideal for eating slowly during great conversation or romantic whispers with your date.

El Federal serves fresh homemade Spanish tortillas, and their salads are also notable, which range from specialties such as apples, carrots, walnuts and cheeses to traditional favorites with a lettuce and tomato foundation. As I said before, the main theme here is fresh and simple, so don’t expect fancy bistro salads, but you will not be disappointed with the quality.

Have a coffee, bottle of wine, cocktail, or milkshake

As for quenching your thirst, El Federal is like a bottomless well. You can sip on unique cocktails like a pisco sour, caipirinha, or the classic Negroni - a mix of gin, Campari and vermouth, with a slice of lemon – guzzle Argentine beers by the bottle, partake in pitchers of draught beer or cider, or just linger over carafes of Argentine wine. One tip is to order a chopp de sidra (a mug of traditional Argentine cider, on draught) for a mere AR$4.50. Or you could even go all out and order a bottle of champagne, which will run you anywhere between 15 and 52 pesos – still a bargain when translated into dollars.

Most of the alcoholic beverages are modestly priced, and as always in Argentina, wine is the best deal you can get if you don’t want to spend a lot. El Federal offers trusty, economic wines such as Traful, Lopez, and Concha y Toro.

If you are looking for something that won’t get you tipsy, try a classic espresso-based drink such as café con crema, or a tea. And El Federal features licuados, the Argentine version of milkshakes, which are made with either water or milk, according to your taste, and consist of any combination of fruits.

If you want a real dessert, Bar El Federal will not disappoint: it also has an extensive list of sweet concoctions, including strudels, pastries, and European-inspired creations of chocolate and fruits. Especially mouth-watering is the apple, pear, and cinnamon strudel, which is baked nearby and brought in fresh daily.

The service at El Federal is relatively slow, but it’s not the kind of place where you’ll want to rush through a meal or drinks. Enjoy the old-fashioned setting and the background noise of the kitchen sizzling meats and forks clinking on plates, while you experience the laid back lifestyle that Buenos Aires is so famous for.

Bar El Federal: The Verdict

• Overall cafe rating: (4/5) Good solid food and drinks with a huge amount of options on the menu (the pastas are especially delicious), an amazing atmosphere from a gorgeous old interior that makes you feel like you could be in a black and white movie, and OK service – a little slow, but very nice and knowledgeable with it.
• Buenos Aires Authenticity Factor: (4/5) A classic Buenos Aires cafe bar in operation since 1864, a fantastically beautiful old wooden bar (although it was snagged from its previous location in a nearby pastry shop) and original tiled floor, plus good, traditional cocina porteña – the only thing holding El Federal back from full authenticity marks are that waves of tourists that usually fill it every day (although not to Cafe Tortoni proportions).
• Value: (4/5) If you’re on a budget, you’ll have no problem finding good eating and drinking options at Bar El Federal.

[Photo Credit: Paula Moya]

Buenos Aires Argentina Guide Special Tip

After a Sunday afternoon spent watching street performances and rummaging through the goodies at the San Telmo antique fair, head to Bar El Federal for a few pints of beer and a pizza with friends. It’s a great place to people watch and have intimate conversation.

If you want to have an extremely authentic Buenos Aires experience, try whiling away an afternoon or evening having coffee, drinks, or a meal in one of the city’s famous “notable cafes and bars”. A few years ago, a city government commission drew up a fairly comprehensive list of 53 notable bars and cafes and awarded them this special status due to either their historical, cultural or architectural importance to the city of Buenos Aires. Many of these establishments have been in operation since the nineteenth century, and upon entering one of them you are quickly transported back to the city’s aristocratic roots.

One picturesque member of this exclusive club of bars and cafes is Bar Seddon, a San Telmo hang-out spot that was converted into a bar from a nineteenth-century pharmacy.

A bar that takes you into the elegant past of Buenos Aires

If you stand still for a moment in Bar Seddon, you can almost pretend that you are in a salon among intellectuals, philosophers, and young lovers from a Buenos Aires of many years ago. The musty yellow lighting casts an antique glow over the mahogany wooden bar, which shines with the additional luster of candles distributed throughout the bar. Bar Seddon is nothing short of breath-taking in its décor, which consists of intriguing statues of Roman goddess-like figures, big windows for gazing out into the street, and an original old black-and-white checkered tile floor (anyone for chess?).

The bar has two stories with plenty of wooden tables and comfortable seats where you can share a bottle of wine and spend hours talking, listening to the bar’s music selection (usually either Silvio Rodriguez or Pink Floyd), or enjoying a live musical performance on certain nights of the week.

[Photo Credit: Paula Moya]

Wet your whistle or appease your appetite

During the day the bar is open for lunch, and it’s a great place to relax with a coffee and pick up a magazine or a copy of the English-language Argentimes newspaper at the bar. On any night of the week at Bar Seddon you can find an eclectic mix of clientèle, ranging from grungy European backpackers to students from all over the world to porteños seeking a little bit of laid-back San Telmo tranquility.

On Wednesday nights the bar features live bossa nova acoustic guitar and vocals, and on Saturday nights you can’t miss a rock/funk band that makes you wonder whether you’re in Buenos Aires or New York City. Also, if you are looking for a place to hold a meeting of any kind, you might want to come to Bar Seddon during the late afternoon to enjoy the warmth, good coffee, and relaxed atmosphere. Or, if you like a drink or two, one little known secret is that Seddon has a great “Happy Hour” from 6pm to 9pm every day: two drinks for the price of one. Bottoms up!

If your belly is rumbling, you’ve also come to the right place. Bar Seddon’s got a great chef who whips up traditional porteña dishes such as costillitas de cerdo (pork ribs), bife de chorizo con pure de zapallo y hojas verdes (beef strip steak with pumpkin puree and fresh greens), homemade pizzas, soups, pastas, and minutas (usually milanesa sandwiches made from either meat, soy, or eggplant).

Bar Seddon – a second home in San Telmo

Seddon is one of those bars where you come once and you just keep coming, whether it’s the music, the food, the atmosphere, or the people that traps you. As for the service, it’s more than personal. If you take a minute to talk to whoever is serving you, you will meet a truly genuine person who makes you feel at home. The family who owns Bar Seddon works hard to keep the place clean, friendly, and enjoyable for everyone.

They are promising new deals in the future for backpackers who are staying at hostels to get a free drink with their meals. Also, they are looking into having ‘world’ specialty nights, such as German or French night, to vary up their cooking and give Bar Seddon a more international appeal.

So grab your date for a candlelit dinner, bring your friends to see a beautiful renovation of a historic building, or simply cozy up to the bar with a magazine and a glass of wine and chat with the smiling bartender while you listen to some Latin tunes. Whatever mood you are in, whoever you are with, Bar Seddon is always a good place to feel the rhythm of San Telmo and imagine the Buenos Aires of a hundred years ago: all with a good bottle of Malbec red wine to liven up the conversation, of course.

Bar Seddon: The Verdict

• Overall bar rating: (4/5) Great service – they treat you like a friend from the start and are knowledgeably helpful with the menu options, fantastic atmosphere – full of warmth & energy, an excellent place to meet people (especially on weekend nights), good food and music, and all found in a beautiful old location.
• Buenos Aires Authenticity Factor: (4/5) Based in a lovely former 19th century pharmacy building, so the surroundings are very authentic, though Bar Seddon has not always been based here – it moved fairly recently from calle 25 de Mayo. However, it definitely brought with it a real sense of Buenos Aires nostalgia, for the cafe bar culture of days gone by.
• Value: (3/5) Drinks, especially cocktails, will run a little expensive here, as they do at most fashionable bars in San Telmo. The food, however, is not at all overpriced.

Buenos Aires Argentina Guide Special Tip

Head out to Bar Seddon on a Wednesday night for a special treat if the bossa nova guitarist is on the microphone, or a Saturday night to rock out to funk and rock tunes. Call ahead to check about live music on 4342-3700.

Sorry for missing a week folks. Without wanting to go into the details, it’s been a crazy and stressful time. Anyway, on with the show we go, with my picks from the Buenos Aires blogosphere from the last two weeks, and I’m going to to try and keep my usually meandering descriptions quite brief this time round…

My favorite Buenos Aires blog posts from the past 2 weeks

• Tango Cherie made an interesting post on the subject of tango ‘taxi dancers’
• Nathan from Trip Trap notices some funny goings on in the Buenos Aires section of Craigslist
• Robert’s map of Recoleta Cemetery is ready, and it looks beautiful
  

Things to see and do in Buenos Aires

• David Schneer goes in search of the Jewish underground in Buenos Aires (a series of posts, see links at top of the page)
• Saltshaker had an enjoyable and cheap day out at the races, at Palermo Hipodromo, a place that I also reviewed a while back on this blog: Palermo Hipodromo, Buenos Aires
• Highlights from Karine’s daily photos over the past couple of weeks includes a picture of the 15 year commemoration of the 1992 Israeli Embassy attack, and on a lighter note, one of the statue of General Alvear in Plaza Francia, Recoleta, and a nice aerial shot of the Retiro train station – I guess taken from the torre de los ingleses?
• Argentina’s Travel Guide covered a couple of popular tourist destinations in Buenos Aires… the Casa Rosada in Plaza de Mayo, and El Tigre, up on the delta to the north of the city

Buenos Aires news, info & general comments

• Argentina’s Travel Guide has some useful advice on how to get packages that are sent to you in Buenos Aires
• Disco Shawn reports on the recent ATM withdrawal problems for foreigners in Buenos Aires
• Will Bonner discovers that film director Francis Ford Coppola has just bought a petit hotel in Palermo Soho, Buenos Aires, to stay in when he works on an upcoming film in Argentina.. which On the Road Travel says will be called Tetro and filmed in Buenos Aires
• Yanqui Mike marks the 25th anniversary of the unfortunate Malvinas conflict with an overview of the history of the Malvinas islands
• Buenos Aires Spotting posts about some interesting underground street art viral marketing by the SUBA clothes brand in Buenos Aires
• Greek in Argentina notes that Buenos Aires came in at number 13 on a list of the wealthiest cities in the world, followed by some interesting discussion that continues on into a lively comments section

Buenos Aires restaurants, food and drink

• Robert posts up more reviews of wines available in Buenos Aires in Divino Vino #10, this time with more misses than hits
• Miriam makes some interesting comments about Dining Out in Buenos Aires in her blog, ‘South for the Winter’
• Argentina’s Travel Guide reviews an ‘all you can eat’ (tenedor libre) restaurant, Gourmet Porteño, in Puerto Madero, and Katmandu, an Indian restaurant in Almagro
  
• Saltshaker reviews Barbacoa parrilla and Caballito pizzeria, both in Barrio Norte, followed up by a trio of short Buenos Aires restaurant reviews in one blog post
• Ken posts about our beer tasting visit to Antares in Palermo (including pictures of both of us in silly hats), which I swiftly followed with a review of my own: Antares Pub, Buenos Aires – and Ken also posted his thoughts on tipping in Buenos Aires

Funny or Odd Stuff in Buenos Aires

• Diva returns to form with posts suggesting that virginity is a scarce commodity in Buenos Aires and her thoughts on Catholicism in Argentina
• Ken notes that the fairly regular lack of customer service in Buenos Aires can feel quite odd to us extranjeros, and also rounds up some interesting signs he has seen around the city
• Nathan from Trip Trap has some interesting stories from the supermarkets of Buenos Aires

Thanks for reading everyone!

Armenia 1447 (between Gorriti and Jose A. Cabrera), Palermo Viejo

Following on from my recent review of the Buller Brewing Company bar in Recoleta, here comes the hotly awaited (by me!) second post in my Great Buenos Aires Beer Hunt series: my visit to the fairly new Antares Cerveza Pub in Palermo Viejo.

As you can see from the (possibly sight damaging) photo to the right, I also happened to go along to Antares on St Patrick’s Day, always an excellent excuse for beer drinking. A little bit more about such Irish shenanigans will follow the main event, as ever, the beer… (didn’t you know that beer is the new wine?)

Antares Pub: The Beer

Along for the beer drinking fun at Antares were fellow Buenos Aires bloggers Ken and Yanqui Mike, both of their lovely wives, and my good friend Agustin, who will no doubt be extremely unhappy with the picture I will post of him, in a silly hat, near the end of this page (if you don’t like beer, you should probably just scroll down for it).
Part of the reason for my series of beer related reviews at the moment is that I like the idea of being pictured with as many cute little beer samplers, that you find in the brewpubs here, as possible. A worthy and valiant quest you cannot deny. Here’s sampler number two, with the seven different beers to be found at Antares:

For all you facial hair haters out there, I can report that the silly beard has now been removed. I hope you’re happy now Of course, the eagle-eyed beer fans among you won’t have noticed the beard anyway… I’m sure the terrible green-tinged monstrosity in a glass to the right of shot will have drawn your your attention far more. Well, I guess that’s St Patrick’s day for you…

Green beer… Antares, I thought you were better than that! And replacing their Imperial Stout for the night too… a strange swap when you consider that stout really is a very Irish beer (and yes, I know that Imperial Stout was first produced for export to the Czars of Russia, but that’s a moot point). Anyway, I’ll forgive Antares a few slips, because they have some very good other beers, and anyway their Imperial Stout is not one of my favorites.

So, here goes a beer by beer summary, as discussed by Ken, Agustin and myself from our combined tasting notes at Antares (thanks to Ken for taking these down on his notepad and passing them to me), and some comparisons with similar beers available at Buller (see Ken’s notes on our trip there), for those keeping score. Before we start, here’s another quick look at the hopeful competitors, lined up before the judging panel of experts:

Running through these beers, left to right as you view them…

Kolsch

[5% alcohol, 8 pesos per pint]

This is a pilsner lager made after a style pioneered in Cologne, Germany. However, the Germans would probably not be too proud of this effort. The Kolsch at Antares is clean, transparent, and completely lacking in character. Without wanting to offend any PC folk out there, we did mention that it’s like a thin blond with no personality. The aroma, if anything, had a slight whiff of mixed herbs. All in all, not a great beer, but as far as lagers in Buenos Aires go, it is still at least 1000 times better than Quilmes.

Antares Kolsch can be compared to it’s fizzier cousin, the Light Lager at the Buller Brewing Company. However, the effervescent Light Lager has the personality the match it’s looks. 1-0 Buller.

Scotch Ale

[6% alcohol, 8 pesos per pint]

The Scotch Ale at Antares is simply fantastic. Possibly my favorite all round beer that I have tasted so far in Buenos Aires, and amazingly drinkable. It has a sweet aroma somewhat reminiscent of butterscotch, accompanied by an appropriately pleasing caramel color. The flavor is initially so smooth on the palette that you will be lulled into a false sense of security, but it soon moves about the mouth in a complex fashion that leads to an oh-so-welcome pleasantly hoppy finish. After you finish one pint, almost certainly quickly, you’ll want another.

Antares Scotch Ale, although in a league of it’s own, can be likened to the Oktoberfest at Buller, as both have tones of caramel and finish more tartly. However, the exceptional Antares effort scores two quick goals against Buller in quick succession, edging them into a 2-1 lead but with all still to play for.

Porter

[5.5% alcohol, 8 pesos per pint]

At first, the Antares version appears quite thin for a porter. However, it turns out to have hidden depths. At first, you are hit by a definite smell of molasses, which soon tempts you to dive in and taste the brew. And when you do, a welcoming committee of roasted malt and chestnut flavors make you feel at home, and continue to linger until you have taken your shoes off and have your feet up on the coffee table. But while you might indeed some expect coffee or chocolate tones to appear at any point, they fail to turn up for the party. But then Porter is a beer for the masses, and rightly so there should be no place for such bourgeois luxuries.

Antares Porter: A proletarian beer that certainly goes down a treat. There is no competing beer at Buller, so Antares knocks in two more goals to come in at half-time with a commanding 4-1 lead. Let’s hope they don’t get too complacent in the second period…

Cream Stout

[7% alcohol, 10 pesos per pint]

This cream stout arrives as expected, with a decent white creamy head and an opaque dark brown body, but it also was already settled… no enjoyable ‘Guinness’ effect to watch as the nitrogen does its work. I was feeling a herbal aroma here, quite possibly thyme, which is interesting for a stout. In the mouth a lovely creamy start dissipates all too quickly into something of a disappointment… not a whole lot going on here in the taste stakes.

The Cream Stout was a decent enough beer to toast St Patrick’s day with, but not one I will return to often, especially with the superior (and less expensive) Porter already on offer at Antares. The Dry Stout at Buller, with it’s deliciously strong chocolate coffee flavors, beats Antares here to pull the score back to 4-2.

Honey Beer

[7.5% alcohol, 10 pesos per pint]

The Honey beer arrived with a clear yellow appearance, similar to lager. However, upon closer inspection you will see that the beer is in fact slightly syrupy in texture… thicker than a lager beer. There certainly is a lot of honey present in the aroma, but unfortunately not a whole lot of it in the taste. And so, it did not live up to our high expectations.

Maybe the Antares Honey Beer would have rated higher if we had not tried the excellent Buller version first. All the same, Antares are now holding on to a tight lead having let Buller back in the game at 4-3.

Barley Wine

[10% alcohol, 8 pesos per pint]

Not going to say too much about this one. If the honey beer was syrupy, this is simply viscous. Not my idea of a good quality in a beer. We were promised a bitter flavor and tones of licorice and fruit, however all we got was a sour taste and a beer that does not hide its high alcohol content very well at all. Antares suggests their Barley Wine as an after dinner drink with a cigar. Not being cigar smokers ourselves, we decided to pass.

Although not to our taste at all, Barley Wine is a unique beer that will not be enjoyed by many people. And as Buller do not have any close equivalent, the score remains 4-3 to Antares, going in to added time…

Cerveza de Treboles (Green ‘Shamrock’ Beer)

[This was a guest beer. The usual Imperial Stout, which it replaced for the night, is fairly nice, and packs a punch at 8.5% alcohol, costing 10 pesos per pint]

Damnations, why if it isn’t the Kolsch coming back to haunt us, along with some green food coloring in the hope that we would give it a second chance. Your ploy failed miserably Kolsch, and even worse, you’ve just scored an own goal to peg Antares back to an unsatisfactory (but all the same enjoyable) 4-4 draw.

So, which place is better for a lover of beer, Antares or Buller? To be honest, both places are great if you stick to their strengths. At Buller try the refreshing Light Lager, or their strong and flavorsome Honey Beer. At Antares you have a quite remarkable Scotch Ale, alongside the almost as enjoyable and equally drinkable Porter. To be honest, if it were to go down to a penalty shoot-out, Antares would edge it, because of those two fantastic beers… Buller may have a more consistent level of quality, but Antares has two surefire match winners up it’s sleeve.

And yes, my extreme apologies for the silly soccer metaphor thread running through this post. I guess beer and soccer will always be inextricably linked in my simple beer-addled English mind:)

Antares Bar – The Place and the Prices

Antares is a very nicely done, brand spanking new bar that fits in very well with the other stylish locations found around it in Palermo Viejo. From the large shiny beer dispensers to the several pieces of beer related memorabilia, and especially the extremely long bar, there is something for every serious ale drinker. And for those more interested in the ambiance and design of the place, it is beautifully done in a very modern way, and the place does get buzzing fairly early, so Antares does not disappointed on these scores either.

Finally, in terms of prices, it’s a steal. Pints are either 8 or 10 pesos each, which is decent enough for good quality beer like this, but with a daily 7pm-9pm happy ‘hour’, when pints are two for the price of one, 4 to 5 pesos for a pint is top value. Let’s just hope they can keep the prices and happy hour this way, and not cave in to the spiraling prices we are seeing across the rest of the city.

A Little St Patrick’s Day Fun

Finally, here’s a few annotated pics from a fun and interesting night at Antares, for your viewing pleasure …

(Bagpipes and kilts on St Patrick’s day… haven’t we got the wrong Celtic country here, Antares?)

(Now that’s better. The bagpipes were soon followed by a traditional Irish three-piece band playing good old fashioned Irish folk tunes. Enough to get us into the spirit of the night…?…)

(The Irish music worked. Soon we were all under the St Patrick’s day spell and wearing silly shamrock hats. In the case of the above picture of my friend, silly certainly is the operative word! Please don’t kill me for posting this Agustin! )

Anyway, enough of the silliness, and onto the serious business of rating this bar…

Antares: The Verdict

• Bar Rating: (4/5) A couple of excellent ales at decent prices, which can be drunk in a very well appointed, shiny new bar. A winning combination.
• BA Authenticity: (3/5) As I have said before, beer is not a particularly Buenos Aires kind of thing, but some authenticity marks are picked up by the very BA like stylish interior.
• Value: (4/5) Antares would certainly get 5/5 during the 7pm-9pm happy ‘hour’ – 4 pesos for a pint of some of the best beer in Buenos Aires is a steal. And even at 8 pesos per pint the rest of the time, you are getting great value at Antares.

Buenos Aires Argentina Guide Special Tip

Go along for the happy ‘hour’ from 7 to 9pm. Sit at the lovely, long, shiny inviting bar. Drink 2 pints of Scotch Ale, followed by two pints of porter, a perfectly achievable and enjoyable feat during a period of about two hours. At this point you should be happy, satisfied, and, even if you didn’t speak Spanish before, conversing fluently with the amiable bar staff at Antares. Nothing like a little alcohol to help grease the language skills!

And after all that, you’ll only be down 16 pesos, or around 5 US Dollars. Sounds like a bargain to me! Say hello if you see me there

This roundup post is late, as usual, so no messing around this week folks… let’s just get straight into the Buenos Aires, Argentina linky goodness from last week…

Buenos Aires Argentina Blog Posts of the Week

• Matt Bites, who appears to be thoroughly enjoying a holiday in Buenos Aires and the general Rio de la Plata area, penned a mouthwatering review of the La Cabrera parrilla in Palermo Viejo, one of the best places to eat meat in BA. Although… drinking Torrontes instead of Malbec wine as an accompaniment to steak… don’t they kill for such crimes against Argentine sensibilities round these parts?
• Matt Chesterton, editor of the Time Out guides to Buenos Aires, has been writing a fantastic series about hotels in Buenos Aires… my runaway favorite has to be his post on classic hotels in BA, mainly for his wedding night anecdote from the Hotel Castelar.. seriously, a must read!
• I couldn’t find a third Matthew to make this a ‘Mattrick’ of top blog posts (were there any other Matts writing about BA this week?)… so we’ll have to make do with the closest I could find…a Marc. He recently announced on Asado Argentina that he has launched a new photo blog of southern Argentina. OK, so it’s not Buenos Aires… but from time to time we city dwellers need to be reminded that real life does exist outside of the metropolis, and his first few pictures provide some beautiful examples of that fact

Things to See and Do in Buenos Aires

• The Argentina Travel blog had some more great tips and reviews this week for things to see and do in Buenos Aires, including the slightly totally crazy Parque Tierra Santa, a Christian theme park that sees an 18 meter Jesus Christ (!) resurrected every half hour. They also have the lowdown on the equally aesthetically pleasing Flor de Metal sculpture and El Ateneo bookshop, both to be found in the barrio of Recoleta
• More lovely pictures from Karine this week, featuring the Palacio de Tribunales building, a pretty San Telmo antiques shop, the Falklands war memorial monument in Plaza San Martin, and some Palacio Barolo facts and pictures, one of my favorite buildings in Buenos Aires, on one of my favorite streets, Avenida de Mayo
• A new entrant to the now splitting-at-the-seams Buenos Aires blogosphere is Discovering BA. Their first few posts include one with a nice picture and comment on another of my favorite buildings here, the French Embassy, jutting out there down at the end of 9 de Julio. One thing though… their blog has me down as ‘A Blog about BA Blogs‘ in their link list… a sign that maybe I should be cutting down on these roundups and ramping up on my own posts, maybe?
• Robert keeps us bang up to date on the renovations and new shade of pink being given to the Casa Rosada (Pink House), the presidential HQ of Argentina based in Plaza de Mayo. Looks like things are coming along really nicely!

Buenos Aires Info, News and General Comments

• Diva has been ranting and raving a lot lately – but it is all very entertaining so I hope she keeps it up, even if it does no good for her blood pressure. This week, she reveals the secret language of Argentine girls, questions why portenos are so proud of themselves, defines the intriguing Argentine phenomenon known as El Chanta (watch out for even more ranting and raving from anonymous commenters!), and analyzes a range of porteno men in their twenties. Hard-hitting stuff, keep it up Diva!

Buenos Aires Restaurants, Food & Drink

• In between rants Diva also found time to review one of her favorite restaurants in Buenos Aires, an Armenian restaurant in Palermo Soho called Sarkis, which was also reviewed a long while back by Saltshaker – both of these recommendations means that this place is easily number 1 on my restaurants to visit list right now – I’m hungry just thinking about it!
• After our recent trip to the Buller Pub in Recoleta, Ken wrote down our ‘imaginative’ joint tasting notes on the six Buller beers, and I soon followed suit with my own review of the Buller’s Recoleta BrewPub, which kicks off what will surely be a very enjoyable (for me) series of postings on where to find the best beer in Buenos Aires
• Robert is trudging through a similar quest to my beer holy grail, that of finding the best wines available in the shops of Buenos Aires. Oh the hardships we go through in the name of good blogging! You can read his latest finds in Divino Vino 9 – this week all from a Patagonian winery called Bodega NQN
• Slightly less appealing, but still very much a feature of Buenos Aires cuisine, is the honest, humble Super Pancho. Ken gets into the local spirit and tries out this most inexpensive of Argentine snacks

Funny or Odd Stuff in Buenos Aires

• A very strange story to end with this week. Ian from Goodairs reports that La Doce (The Twelth Man), the hardcore supporters of Boca Juniors football team, are exporting their special brand of hooliganism to the rest of the world for profit. Today Columbia and Mexico are taking advantage, but who knows, soon Rochdale vs Accrington Stanley in English League Division two will be seeing chants of “you can stick your flatcap up your ar*e”, before mass riots ensue, whippets and pint tankards flying in all directions.

Sorry about the lame/irrelevant Northern England football jokes at the end there, I just get carried away sometimes! See you all next week for another Buenos Aires blog roundup!

[Also has a downtown pub location at Paraguay 428]

The Buller brewpub in Recoleta is one of the few places in Buenos Aires where you can get a proper pint of beer. By ‘proper’, I mean two things. Firstly, served in a traditional pint glass. That is key. Beer just tastes better that way. But secondly, and far more importantly, the BEER MUST TASTE GOOD, and not like the mass-produced cats piss that is served in the majority of bars across the world, and is especially prevalent in Argentina, where Quilmes, high on preservatives and additives but low on any kind of taste whatsoever, prevails.

In fact, at first look it seems so difficult to get decent beer at a reasonable price in Buenos Aires, that you might just give up. I know I did… I tried for a while, then decided I would just have to forget about this great drink that is so close to my heart for the duration of my stay in Argentina. But then I took a trip home to the UK at Christmas, including a pilgrimage to the Fuller’s brewery (makers of the finest beer on the face of the planet), and reignited my passion for the real drink of the gods. And so, once back in Buenos Aires, I decided to start a series of posts that will go under the grandiose name of…

The Great Buenos Aires Beer Hunt

I mean, what would life be like without good beer? It just doesn’t bear thinking about…

A Short Introduction to Beer in Buenos Aires

Asado Argentina wrote an excellent introduction about beers that are available in Argentina, although it doesn’t make for great reading for a beer fan like myself… there is not a whole lot of flavorful beer to be found easily here, and most of the time you will have to make do with the usual suspects of Quilmes, Isenbeck, Brahma (from neighbors Brazil), and some ‘international’ beers that are actually made under license in Argentina and are closer to Quilmes than anything else: Heineken, Warsteiner, Budweiser and Stella Artois. In fact, in think Quilmes does brew most or all of those in Argentina!

There are fortunately some far better beers to be found in Buenos Aires, but you are going to have to hunt them down. An excellent starting point for such a search is this beer ’scooping’ report on Buenos Aires (apparently scooping means finding new beers to tick off your list… like a beer version of train spotting), which shows that there is a large amount of small breweries and brewpubs dotted around Buenos Aires, waiting to be found… but also that many are closing, I guess due to lack of business (this is not a beer city).

Anyway, Buller, being a few blocks from my new apartment, is as good as any to start… although I am expecting things to only get better from here on out in this series of beer posts. As you can see from this following photo, it looks like I am in for a long, hard, arduous slog to discover decent beer in Buenos Aires…

The things a man has to do in the name of investigative blogging!

Buller: The Beer

I went along to Buller with my new friend Ken and his lovely wife Helen, a norteamericano couple here for six months to learn Spanish. Fortunately Ken wields a mean pen and notepad, and he jotted down all of our tasting notes and posted them up in his blog, Un Ano Sin Primavera, reviewing six different beers in all; the full Buller range. No, we didn’t both drink six pints (although it is tempting), instead we had the sample taster that Buller do for AR$17, with cute little quarter pint (maybe smaller) glasses, as seen in the pictures above, and this one too, with names shown on the table placemat underneath:

The Winner: Honey Beer

As you will note from Ken’s posting of our over-the-top tasting notes, the best beers at Buller are the refreshing Light Lager, the deceptively alcholic and complex Honey Beer and the coffee-chocolate Dry Stout, with the ‘Cotton Candy’ Oktoberfest not far behind. Really the Cream and Indian Pale Ales were nothing special, and did not contain anything like the level of hoppiness that beers in that style should.

However, the beers were not of exceptionally high quality. Don’t get me wrong, they are great in comparison with Quilmes, but nothing there knocked me off my feet. The closest to doing so was the Honey Beer (not just because of its 8.5% alcohol content!), which will be my drink of choice when I return to Buller (it is basically my local pub, after all). Being a worthy winner, it deserved another pint, and a picture all to itself, as can be seen to the right of this text.

However, I have a feeling that other pubs here will bring greater beery delights: in fact I already know there are better beers at Antares in Palermo, which will probably be the next post in this series, and the scooping report suggests there are far better beers out there I have yet to try. Oh, but I will. And how!

Buller: Recoleta Location, Recoleta Prices

The pub is located in the ‘tourist strip’ of bars, clubs and restaurants that runs along calle R. M. Ortiz, right in front of that most famous (and fascinating) of Buenos Aires tourist attractions, the Recoleta Cemetery. However, I think it is probably one of the most pleasant places along this strip, almost completely due to the nice patio area it has out the front. I guess it is quite fitting for a pub that sells an Oktoberfest beer to have its own beer garden – I would say you could close your eyes and imagine you are in Munich, but really the beer isn’t anywhere near that good. Here is a shot of a parasol in the beer garden, with another photo soon after showing the lovely green surround:

All the same, I can’t imagine many better things to do on a hot Buenos Aires evening that to sit in the beer patio at Buller and have a few Light Lagers, or a couple of Honey Beers… oh OK then, make it a few of those too, seeing as I live within staggering distance home

The thing that always put me off Buller before was the prices. At AR$12 to AR$15 a pint, it costs at least two to three times as much for a pint as you would pay for a whole liter of Quilmes elsewhere. OK, so maybe it does taste two to three times better than Quilmes, but it is still way overpriced.

Happy Hour, How I love Thee So

But fortunately, the old ‘happy hour’ comes to the rescue. Buller stretch theirs from 6pm to 9pm EVERY DAY, at which point the beers cost from AR$7 to AR$9 a pint, which is far more reasonable, although still a little bit much by my book. Obviously being the cheapskate that I am, happy hour will almost certainly be the only time I return to Buller for my hit of Honey Beer. You can drink a suprisingly enjoyable amount in three hours if you really put your mind to it…

Buller Pub and Brewery: The Verdict

• Bar Rating:   (4/5) A very nice beer garden, some very decent beers, pretty good american style pub food on offer, authentic brewery vats visible in the window (see photo below), and a great location for visitors to the city – an all round good performer in the bar stakes.
• BA Authenticity:  (2/5) Beer is certainly not a Buenos Aires specialty, and the beers and garden at Buller are more German in style. However, the fairly slow service is very authentically BA, so they get an extra mark for that, whether they want it or not!
• Value:  (2/5) Buller would get a 3/5 during happy hour, but it is a 2/5 at all other times.. very expensive beer by Buenos Aires standards, but nothing exceptional in return for this extra cash. Once again, you are probably paying extra for a prime Recoleta location.

Buenos Aires Argentina Guide Special Tip

I would recommend going in the happy ‘hour’ of 6pm to 9pm, when the prices are more reasonable, and if possible, on a balmy summer evening at this time, when the beer garden is a great place to sup a few pints in. Drink up!

And another quick tip for beer fans… make sure you keep checking back to this blog for more pub reviews as I attempt to track down the best pints of beer in the city of Buenos Aires… next up, I think, is Antares in Palermo…

Well, amazingly, I made it to ten weeks of this Buenos Aires blog roundup. Quite an achievement for me, because each one involves a hell of a lot of reading, selecting, writing and linking each week. But I enjoy doing it, and it keeps me up to date with a lot of what is going on in Buenos Aires, plus I get to read so many interesting opinions about the city, and often see some absolutely stunning photos of BA.

So, onwards I go, with Buenos Aires blog roundup number 10…

Buenos Aires Blog Posts of the Week

• This week, my favorite posts are all about cool, hip things in Buenos Aires. And they don’t get much cooler than this: look at the new Adidas “I Love Buenos Aires” line – I really want the blue sneakers in the second picture! Thanks to Buenos Aires Spotting for noticing that, and for generally just being far to trendy for their own good…
• I am a big ‘indie’ music fan. Until this week, I thought there was no indie music in Buenos Aires… until Disco Shawn came to the rescue, and pointed out that a (possibly regular) indie night is starting this Friday at Club Niceto. I’m hoping I’ll be able to get to it, if any of my resident stalkers want to know where to find me this week
• Now, what could be cooler than some tips on how to pick up girls in Buenos Aires, I ask? Well, how about some crazy & funny tips from one of the girls herself? OK then, just don’t blame me or Diva when you get slapped five times in one night for trying her advice!

Things to See and Do in Buenos Aires

• Robert has some great photos of the life cycle of the Palo Borracho trees that you see so much of in Buenos Aires, which bloom a lovely pink, but also cause Robert a nasty allergy. Still, nice to see someone suffering in the name of good blogging!
• Ian Mount, on Gridskipper duty, notes that Buenos Aires’ supposed “Tango season” is almost upon us, starting with the annual Buenos Aires Tango festival from 28th February to 4th March, as is also noted on my own Buenos Aires events page
• Isabelle Lagarde has been busy Learning Spanish in Buenos Aires, and then spending her free time in buzzing, bohemian San Telmo on Sundays, then even finding time to write about it all. How does every else but me manage to be so productive? Hmph. Anyway, for more information along the San Telmo Sunday theme, you might want to check out my old post about Plaza Dorrego and the Feria de San Telmo
• My favorite pictures from Karine this week are of a plastic surgery clinic on top of a cafe in barrio Belgrano – hitting two of BA’s biggest vices in one fell swoop, some assorted pictures of the relaxing Palermo Parks, one of the cruise boats moored in Buenos Aires that have caused an invasion of 10,000 tourists into the city (just think of all those tango shows and steak dinners!) and a picture of a Persicco Ice Cream Parlor in Belgrano, which reminds me, I need to get back there to make a review soon, and of course to help feed my ice cream addiction further
• Ken takes a walk through the Reserva Ecologica Costanera Sur, a haven of peace and wildlife just a few minutes from the smog and craziness of Buenos Aires City Center. Next time you go Ken, I definitely recommend trying a Choripan from one of the stalls down there on the Costanera, delicious…
• Ken has been very active this week it seems, because he also took a four hour bike trip tour up to the north of Buenos Aires to Tigre and San Isidro (note – he didn’t cycle all the way there and back, that would take a lot longer and be quite dangerous I would guess! Of course, they took a train…)

Buenos Aires Info, News & General Comments

• Not only did Dalila’s Trendy Palermo Viejo make it into Clarin recently along with the rest of us Buenos Aires bloggers, but she also got featured in the New York Times last week. Now that really is hitting the big time! Congrats Dalila…
• Tango Cherie has some good tips for ladies, and a link, about how to present yourself at a tango milonga in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires Restaurants, Food, Drink & Places to Stay

• El Desnivel is a great place for some traditional Buenos Aires steak or choripan (or indeed, assorted grilled animal organs) in San Telmo. Argentina’s Travel Blog has a nice review of it this week. However, in the area of hustling, bustling San Telmo parrillas, I still prefer Manolo. Has anyone checked out its new premises yet?
• Good news for us Brits! (even though it has nothing to do with us apart from its name…) Bar Britanico, that old San Telmo favorite, is back, as noted by Blog Pasa en Buenos Aires (Spanish) and Yanqui Mike. Fans of Che and The Motorcycle Diaries might be interested to know that the cafe scene at the start of the movie was shot in Bar Britanico.
• Matt Bites has a great review of Home, the boutique hotel in Palermo. It looks so great from his words and pictures that I wish I could afford to stay there to try it out. If the owners (fellow Brits, I believe) are reading… freebie night in exchange for a blog review, maybe?

Funny or Odd Things in Buenos Aires

• I always end up putting Diva in the ‘odd’ section just for the sake of it. I hope she doesn’t mind. Anyway, she needs, and deserves, a logo for her blog… hopefully some good design-minded soul out there will help her with this, on her way to achieving world domination before the year is out
• I think it’s extremely odd for people to come and live to a foreign country, like Argentina, and then moan about it all the time. I mean, what the hell are you doing here if you think everything is so bad? Go home! Fortunately, Miss Tango in Her Eyes seems to agree with my sentiment, with her post on how not to behave in a foreign country. Moaners, please take note…

Thanks again to all Buenos Aires bloggers for blogging, readers for reading, and bus drivers for getting me to and from work on time. Without you all, my world would be a sadder place… ’til next week, blog fans…

I’ve been making noises for a while about writing shorter reviews, because I’m sure I bore the hell out of half of my readers. Well, here is my first real attempt at brevity, and a bar review is a good time to start, because generally I can’t remember much about the bars I frequent in Buenos Aires, for fairly obvious reasons…

It’s a Resto-Bar

Acabar is, I guess, one of those resto-bar things. I’ll always remember my friend telling me a story about a porteno trying to explain the great mystery of Argentine resto-bars. It went something like this:

“It’s quite confusing, see… it is not just your typical bar. No, it’s far more cunning than that. It is also sort of a restaurant too. That’s why it’s called a resto-bar“.

That person obviously went to the school of stating the blindingly obvious. I think they were in the class above me…

Anyway, enough silliness before I derail this review into another ramble-fest. Acabar is a very nice bar with a twist, but I would ignore the restaurant part if I were you. The one time my friends and I had food, it was less than good, and in addition to that, the next day my fiancee was extremely sick, which we believe was down to a dodgy piece of fish eaten there. So, let’s concentrate on the bar (I like to concentrate on bars).

Although I should first say, hats off to the Acabar menu… obviously a colorful distraction to take your attention away from the not so great food it describes:

I think that filet de merluza was the offending foodstuff. Anyway, back to the bar…

A bar with a twist

What’s the twist? Games. You like to play games? Me too. You like to play pictionary in Spanish to help improve your vocabulary? You bet. You like to play sexy pictionary in Spanish as a good way to flirt with you ever-so-good-looking Argentine companions? Your wish is my command…

You like to get a little tipsy now and again? Of course. You like to get tipsy and play drunken over-sized jenga? I think I can read your minds…

Would you like me to stop the annoying questions and answers thing? OK..OK… you don’t all have to shout that loud.

Acabar: Nice name!

Great name, in fact. Multi-faceted. Firstly, it has all kinds of comedy potential. In English, acabar basically means “to finish”, and can be used in the sexual sense of the word. Oh, the japes I have walking past Acabar of a night in Palermo Hollywood, and drunkenly asking my lady in my worst castellano:

“Vamos a acabar ahora?” – “Are we going to finish now?”

I think you get the meaning. I really am a very unentertaining drunk.

Secondly, the name works in a kind of primeval grunting me-tarzan-you-jane fashion. ACA-BAR… HERE-BAR. The owners are obviously naming geniuses.

But the bar is great too. Besides the many wonderful board games, the wait staff are extremely nice and friendly, and there are enough of them around to be able to grab one quickly for drink orders even when it’s busy. And it does get busy, producing a happy, buzzing atmosphere full of mildly inebriated board gamers.

Acabar is also HUUUGE. The first few times I walked past, I didn’t go in after looking in the window and seeing a fairly small area with no tables free. Little did I know that the bar opens up round the corner to the left and backwards, and just keeps on going, and going. Like a tardis. I’m sure at one point you are traipsing through their neighbors back-patios to reach the end of the bar. But don’t let that put you off your drinks.

And all of that space is filled with character… interesting old chandeliers, pop-art on the walls, lots of funny ornaments and bits & bobs, a hundred different types of wooden tables that have definitely seen better days but still add to the rag-tag look. All very pleasant in a hip kind of way, as you would expect from most places in Palermo Hollywood. You can just about see some of it in the photo above… apologies if it is not that representative, I was having an alcoholic moment.

And on that note, the scores are in from the Icelandic jury…

Acabar Verdict

• Overall Bar Rating: (4/5) Nice surroundings, huge bar that always seems busy, and the board games are a great touch.
• BA Authenticity: (4/5) Is favored by portenos, and the ‘hip’ factor supplied by the art and old tables makes it an authentic modern Buenos Aires bar.
• Value: (3/5) The usual suspects (Quilmes, wine and cocktails) at the usual prices, perhaps a little on the expensive side.

Buenos Aires Argentina Guide Special Tip

Go for the drinks, the games and the nice bar, but avoid the under-par food (there are many, many far better restaurants in Buenos Aires that you can go to first, then onto the bar later).