Café Tortoni

In front of you is one of the most celebrated cafés in the Spanish-speaking world. Look at the queue at the door: Buenos Aires has been coming in here for more than a century and a half.

1A café from 1858

The Tortoni opened in 1858. Sources disagree about its founder: some speak of a French immigrant named Touan, others of a certain Tortoni. Either way, the name echoes the famous Café Tortoni on the Boulevard des Italiens in Paris. In 1880 it moved to the ground floor of a house on calle Rivadavia, which is the back of what you see now.

2A new face for the avenue

Avenida de Mayo was cut through from 1888 and opened in 1894. To face the new avenue, the building was given a new façade by architect Alejandro Christophersen, completed in 1898. That's why the café has two entrances: the elegant one on the avenue and the old one on Rivadavia.

3Artists and writers

In 1926 the painter Benito Quinquela Martín founded La Peña here, a circle of artists and writers. Its gatherings drew Alfonsina Storni, Jorge Luis Borges, Federico García Lorca and Arthur Rubinstein, and even Albert Einstein is listed among its visitors. Carlos Gardel sang in the café and was a regular.

In the basement, La Bodega hosts tango and jazz; the Fénix Jazz Band has played there on Saturdays since 1978.

4What to look for

• The gold sign and the wooden doors of the 1898 façade.
• The windows: through them you can glimpse the columns and lamps of the salon.
• Avenida de Mayo, lined with domed and balconied buildings.