Argentina's Historical and Cultural Legends in the Classic Coffee Compendium

Buenos Aires: The City of Coffee Houses

Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, is said to be a city with more coffee houses than Paris. Currently, Buenos Aires has a total of 3,250 cafés, which means there is one coffee shop for every 1,000 people in the city. Argentine media have written that coffee houses are vessels of daily life and historical heritage—they can serve as gathering places for friends to engage in lively discussions, or as sanctuaries for solitary reflection and self-contemplation.

Toni Café: A Historical Landmark

The most representative café in Buenos Aires, Toni Café, was founded in 1858, pioneering the trend initiated by French immigrants. The café originally opened on Esmeralda Street and moved to its current location at 825 May Avenue in 1880. The main entrance of Toni Café facing May Avenue was inaugurated on October 26, 1894, a date that has since been designated as Argentina's Coffee Day.

Literary Heritage of Famous Cafés

Famous coffee houses are always connected with literature and art, and Toni Café is a quintessential example. For a long period after its founding, it served as a gathering place for renowned Argentine artists, writers, and intellectuals. The ubiquitous celebrity photographs and portraits on the café's walls bear witness to this history. Artists discussed art, recited novels and poetry, and performed new musical compositions in the café, allowing Toni to continue its glorious century-and-a-half legacy of scholarly gatherings. Since 1893, Toni Café has been the premier destination for tourists visiting Buenos Aires.

Perhaps worth mentioning is that a small cup of cortado coffee at Toni Café costs 15 pesos, showing no significant difference from many ordinary coffee shops in Buenos Aires. Despite its illustrious reputation, Toni does not display any aristocratic airs in its pricing.

Café Británico: A Tale of Transformation

Located in Lezama, Café Británico also has literary connections. During World War I, many British soldiers found their way to Argentina, and Café Británico, which opened in 1928, became a gathering place for these soldiers. During the Falklands War, Argentinians removed the first three letters "Bri" from the restaurant's sign, transforming it into "Tánico" Café, a name that continues to this day. After the Falklands War, Argentine writer Ernesto Sábato wrote his novel "On Heroes and Tombs" at a table in this café.

Preservation and Recognition

The Buenos Aires government places great importance on protecting and promoting these famous coffee establishments. In 1998, the Buenos Aires City Council passed legislation establishing a Classic Coffee House Registry. The registry selection committee comprises city government officials, operators of these classic cafés, descendants of the café founders, and nearby residents. For those long-standing, uniquely designed, and culturally traditional coffee houses and bars in Buenos Aires, inclusion in the registry means their value has been officially recognized.

San Bernardo Café: A Symbol of Crespo District

One of the three classic cafés selected this year, San Bernardo Café, founded in 1912, is a symbol of the Crespo District. For a long time, this café only allowed men to enter. Men came here to enjoy tango music, yet one of its owners was a woman—the only woman in the café at that time. In the early 1920s, this woman dressed in men's clothing and played the bandoneón in the café. She was Paquita Bernardo, Argentina's first female bandoneón player.

By 1930, San Bernardo Café already had more than 20 pool tables, making it one of the largest pool halls in Buenos Aires at the time and a major venue for pool competitions. Upstairs from the café was a club that offered various games beloved by Argentinians, such as bridge, dominoes, and billiards—pastimes that Argentinians still enjoy today. This café attracted many famous figures, including Carlos Gardel, Celedonio Flores, Genaro Espósito, and Kinguela Martín, among others. From the 1940s to the 1960s, the area where San Bernardo was located was the most prosperous part of Buenos Aires, and many writers and politicians became associated with San Bernardo Café.

The current operators of San Bernardo Café are an elderly couple. The owner, Laura, says that customers stream in continuously, and this coffee shop seems to have become a part of her life. She and her 77-year-old Gypsy husband have lived next to the coffee shop for 50 years, and their home has also undergone several renovations.

Club Gricel: A Tango Legend

Club Gricel was the first club in Buenos Aires to feature a famous coffee house. Sergio Turo, son of one of the club's founders, feels proud about being selected as a classic coffee house. The club was completed in 1941, and the coffee house began operations in 1942. At that time, the club had 1,700 members who came to enjoy tango and revel all night. For decades after its opening, the club was a renowned tango venue in Argentina until a heavy rainstorm in April 2012 damaged the dance floor, temporarily stopping the daily dances.

Club Gricel is a legend in Argentina's tango scene. Tango masters such as Osvaldo Pugliese, Aníbal Troilo, and Astor Piazzolla performed here regularly—figures who are god-like in the eyes of Argentinians and for Argentine tango. Later, famous dancers like Sandro, also regarded as gods of tango by Argentinians, were regular patrons here.

The historical photographs preserved in the club record items donated by local residents, such as phonographs. Néstor Miranda, a 60-year-old resident, says this is the most important cultural venue in western Buenos Aires—a large family composed of hundreds of people. He says there are cultural activities almost every evening: tango and singing lessons, coffee literature salons, films, performances, and more. The cuisine here is also very rich. People come here as if returning home.

Postal Corner Café: The Birthplace of Tango

Another classic selected this year, the Postal Corner Café, is located on a street corner in the Pompeya district. The café opened in the 1930s, but before that, it was a school. From 1920 to 1923, Homero Manzi, the famous Argentine tango lyricist, was a student at this school. The entrance of the café was once the school dormitory—a room with a view of the southern landscape of Buenos Aires. Homero Manzi's works reflect these imprints left by life. Manzi's immortal tango masterpiece "Barro" was born on this very corner. "Barro" was once praised as "the great urban symbol of Buenos Aires."

Gregorio Pronik, 75, created the Manzi Museum directly across from the Postal Corner Café to ensure the world would forever remember this tango master. The owner of the Postal Corner Café, Arturo, 57, has been running the café for 20 years. Arturo says this is an unassuming café whose main customers are office workers from the surrounding area, but some neighbors are his regular patrons. "Some people come every day, treating this place as their office, their club. The coffee shop is the most important thing in the community, even more important than a pharmacy."

The Coffee Culture of Buenos Aires

In Argentina, there are numerous coffee shops located at street corners where two streets intersect, aptly called "coffee corners." Coffee shops are not just, as Laura, the owner of San Bernardo Café, said, a part of the owner's life—in reality, Buenos Aires coffee shops are a part of the lives of almost all residents of the city.

For many Argentinians, taking a moment to sit at a roadside café after work, enjoying leisure time bathed in sunshine and filled with the aroma of coffee, is an indispensable joy in life. The coffee life of Argentinians also reveals their unhurried, methodical approach to life. Like Arturo's neighbors at the Postal Corner Café, regular coffee customers often come to the same coffee shop at the same time every day. People might even see the same dog running past the tables at the same time, as if its owner chooses the same time for dog walking daily.

Chain Coffee Shops and Traditional Challenges

More mainstream chain coffee shops have therefore secured their place in Buenos Aires. The Martínez chain and Havana chain, also operated as franchises, are well-known brands among them. Among Buenos Aires' 3,250 coffee houses, 75 are listed in the city's Classic Coffee House Registry. However, the Buenos Aires Coffee and Bar Association believes that faced with the impact of large chain operations, some traditional coffee shops seem vulnerable. Buenos Aires originally had more classic coffee houses, but 10 have closed, with the most recent being La Coruña Coffee Shop, which closed at the beginning of this year.

Heritage Protection and Cultural Recognition

Once listed in the registry, these famous coffee houses become key cultural tourism attractions promoted by the Buenos Aires city government, and each shop can receive annual funds for renovation and maintenance. In 2012, this amount was 200,000 pesos per shop. Inclusion in the registry is not a permanent status—classic coffee houses must maintain their traditional social image, architectural style, and decorative features, or they will be removed from the registry. A café named "El Chino" in the Pompeya district has had its classic coffee house status revoked.

Hernán Lombardi, Buenos Aires' Minister of Culture, emphasizes that the practice of establishing a coffee house registry is unique in the world. The tangible and intangible assets of these coffee houses have become part of Buenos Aires' tradition, comparable to Vienna, Paris, and New York. The Buenos Aires government is seeking UNESCO recognition to list the city's coffee houses as intangible cultural heritage of humanity. Regardless of the prospects of this effort, the tradition of coffee will continue to be passed down among the residents of Buenos Aires for a long time to come.

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