Peru (corner of Carlos Calvo), San Telmo

[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.

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Defensa 695 (on corner of Chile), San Telmo

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.

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Buenos Aires Online Videos

Recently I discovered a great new website that has online videos for many different travel destinations around the world, called Geobeats. They have an excellent video section on Buenos Aires, with many videos from around the more famous barrios of Buenos Aires, including spots on hotels, restaurants and museums. All the videos of Buenos Aires are very professionally done and pretty informative, so I recommend checking them out.

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Av. de Mayo 1370 (between San Jose & Santiago del Estero), City Center

As I have almost certainly mentioned before, the Palacio Barolo is one of my favorite buildings in Buenos Aires. It is a simply magnificent mish-mash of architectural styles, held together by some amazing numeric symbolism that acts as a tribute to Dante Alighieri, and his epic poem “The Divine Comedy”. I will write a full post about the building and the fascinating stories behind it very soon, when I get the chance to take some more pictures that will fully do it justice.

For now however, this post is a review of the cafe that recently opened on its ground floor, Cafe Palacio Barolo, which is pretty darn good on its own merits, and also acts as an additional excellent excuse to spend some time inside this fantastic building. This is also my first post on the theme of Buenos Aires Cafes, and believe me it will be the first of many, because Buenos Aires is a city full of places to get your caffeine fix, and cafe culture also plays an important part in everyday life here.

[The Palacio Barolo building and cafe are featured on my suggested walking tour of Buenos Aires City Center, which can also by booked as a private walking tour of Buenos Aires, personally guided by me]

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[5th - 11th March 2007]

For your information, I’m writing this week’s Buenos Aires blog roundup slowly in between itching the many mosquito bites that have ravaged my poor body. Unfortunately we have a bit of a mosquito invasion here in the city of Buenos Aires at the moment, although at least it looks (correct me if I’m wrong) like there is no risk of Dengue here in the city (unlike in parts of Buenos Aires province, and further north in Misiones). Still, the bites don’t half itch a lot, so apologies if my itching-triggered lack of concentration causes any errors in this roundup…

Buenos Aires Blog Posts of the Week

• This week’s top posts are about three new things that I’m pretty certain I will love. First up, Robert points out that a cafe has just opened up on the ground floor of the Palacio Barolo, a building that fascinates pretty much everyone, including Robert and I. It looks beautiful in Robert’s pictures, and despite the hefty, touristy prices (9 pesos for a cafe con leche with 3 medialunas!!!), I will definitely be checking it out in the near future
• Secondly, Dan from Saltshaker has been privy to a sneak preview of the food at an authentic Indian restaurant that will apparently be opening in Barrio Norte (Laprida and Charcas) later this month. It will be called Tandoor, and hopefully will provide the quality Indian food many of us expats have been missing since arriving in Buenos Aires
• Thirdly, Disco Shawn (still my vote for top blogger pseudonym of the year), introduces us to the Chilean indie musician Javiera Mena, who will be playing in Buenos Aires this Friday, March 16th at Club Niceto in Palermo Hollywood, during their indie music night Compass. From the tracks linked to in that blog post, her stuff sounds pretty good (I like my “cute, keyboard-driven pop goodness”, as Shawn describes it), so I will probably try to make my way to Compass this Friday

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