Monica: Take the walking tour -- I think I did the art and activism one, but a part of me feels like they used to be lumped into one. So much history and the guides are always awesome.
Monica: Not sure if you're into Opera, but I found this to be a really awesome experience. The theater alone is absolutely breath-taking.
Monica: I really hope this is still around! It's a really small shop in a bustling market that makes killer espressos. It feels like a little hole-in-the-wall straight from SF. What you'll start noticing in BA is that though they have a coffee culture, they actually don't drink good coffee. Most of the time, it's pretty much Nescafe. That being said, everyone loves lounging and passing the time at coffee shops... such a weird paradox. So, I found this place to be a gem! Passing the time in a lovely market while drinking amazing coffee.
Monica: This place. Omg. Get their bondiola (it's an argentine sandwich). They have awesome toppings of whatever chimicurri or spices that you please, and enjoy the nice cool air of puerto madero.
Monica: Great trail along the (albeit sorta nasty) water. If you have an itch for nature, and want something a little different from all the beautiful parks around town.
Monica: May not be as interesting to you, but while I lived here I frequented Walrus as much as the coffee shop. Great little store with an affordable collection of books.
Monica: Fun drum event in what was a dodgier part of town. Find a buddy! Usually they have about 15+ people jamming on percussion together. Liter beers in cups (they're the size of your head!) and an all around wonderful time
Monica: Spent quite a bit of time at this graffiti bar. It used to be called "Hollywood in Cambodia". The end of the graffitimundo tour is here, and you can usually run into a couple artists chatting over beers.
Monica: This place! I spent so much time reading here by myself, watching people play chess, or drinking with friends. It honestly feels like you're lost in wonderland. Plenty of sculptures, flowers, and a surprising number of friendly stray cats who allow human people to enter their kingdom.
Monica: Damn! All these places I used to go to now have multiple locations. I'm pretty sure this is the right one... anyway! They had amazing drink specials and might have some ciders on tap if you're not into the beer thing. I eventually (actually, pretty quickly) got tired of Quilmes and was grateful to find a more "hipster" brewery to shoot the shit with friends.
Monica: When this first became a thing, I visited the chef's house and she cooked myself and a bunch of strangers a delicious meal. It's similar to the Feastly model, which was called "backdoor restaurants" (I think?). Delicious food and a great dining experience.
Monica: Hmmm not sure if that's the right link. This is what I went to: http://www.teatrociego.org/ It's quite the aural experience and they really try to keep the group small, so that everyone feels engulfed in sound. In general, I found that BA really loved toying with the senses and pushing people to see, hear, touch, smell, and taste in different ways than I had ever before.
Pam ☕️: the only authentic bar for writers that’s left in the city, and I’ve seen them leaving right after, afflicted. The reason? The unbeatable beard of Héctor Libertella, the author of La Arquitectura del Fantasma, a genius, avant-garde writer that lived, wrote and “was paid” at the bar until his death (and these days protects its tables, occupied by a legion of clandestine disciples)
Pam ☕️: Coffee and blanketsEverything at Birkin (picture above) is in perfect syntony: the lighting (incredible, as if it were imported from Williamsburg), the design’s strict elegance (with its minimal dose of vintage), the blankets that customers can take outside when it gets cold. And the lattes, the locale’s specialty, that take coffee to a new, almost artistic dimension.
Pam ☕️: The bookstore owned by Fernando Gioia is the most sublime secret of the Buenos Aires book club. Worthy of the locale, which features a large vault formed by the top of tipa trees, Calle Honduras might just have the most beautiful contrast between lights and shadows in the city. What does Librosref have to offer? Everything: essays, poetry, foreign literature, smart esotericism. But it’s this unique Everything, subtly orchestrated, that someone, who is the happiest when he reads, chooses to share. And using a truly original artifice: there’s a mix of new and used books
Pam ☕️: Matienzo is basically a venue for watching indie music bands and theater plays, for poetry readings and art exhibits, for eating homemade food (try the knishes), for drinking and observing the stars (the bar extends to a voluptuous terrace).
Pam ☕️: Costanera Sur you’ll find the immense ecological reserve (picture above), an expanse of nature where the city enters an amazing, full-of-oxygen, delightful, noise-free limbo. A territory of hipsters, who spend the nights there, and the healthy tribe, that cross it riding their bikes, ears armored with music, the reserve is a mental space more than a physical one, a point of view, an exterior perspective that allows us to see differently what we see all the time: the real Buenos Aires.
