About Cafe Tortoni

Trying to bare those extremely hot temperatures here in Buenos Aires, I’m starting this new year with a posting about one of the most -if it is not the most- memorable place in Buenos Aires. The Tortoni Cafe. Not as late as yesterday, Dec. 31st, I was there enjoying a cafe con leche and some sweets. The line of people waiting outside is large, whether you’re coming at night or during the day. The guy at the door will monitor the entries. Only the doorman will decide when comes your time to enter Tortoni. Just don’t think you’ll be entering Tortoni like this. You’ll be given a OK to access the place, when a table inside becomes available. It feels a little like entering a club. Once inside, you’ll be impressed by the beauty of the place.
Cafe Tortoni is the oldest cafe of Buenos Aires. Inaugurated on 1858 by a French immigrant whose surname was Touan, it was named Tortoni after the local in Paris at Boulevard des Italiens where the elite of the Parisiene culture gathered in the 19th century. Frequented by personalities such as Alfonsina Storni, Benito Quinquela Martin, Carlos Gardel, Baldomero Fernandez Moreno, Luigi Pirandello, Federico Garci’a Lorca and Arturo Rubinstein among others, men of letters and parliamentarians. The Tortoni is the paradigm of coffee places in Buenos Aires. Its interior stands out by its fine boiserie and its tables of oak and green marble. In the very back of this establishment is a very small show room, where jazz and tango artists perform every night of the week.