Cafe Society...a visit to Cafe Tortoni

Cafe Tortoni must surely be one of the most visited sites on the touristic itinerary of Buenos Aires. This is normally a disincentive for us to visit a place, but sometimes you just have to suck it up and join the hoards if a site is truly deserving of its noteriety. And in the case of Cafe Tortoni, one crack of the door convinced us that not only would we have to become one of the gawkers, but we would also have to part with whatever cash was necessary in order to literally drink in the atmosphere. Fortunately, it also happened to be close to lunch time so it was no great hardship to pull a couple of chairs to one of the storied tables.

The setting is a gloriously high room, with stained glass "skylights" and walls lined with mirrors and art. The tables, while intimately small, have comfortably generous leather- clad chairs. The space runs deep off the street, but is divided into more manageable zones by a long bar centered on the west wall. In the back are a trio of small salons available for more private functions.

The waiters, god bless them, were friendly and indulgent, and oh so traditional in their black vests, white aprons and their silver-haired suaveness!

What's more, the food was really good! We both indulged in steak (surprised?), Jay with a traditional Chorizo cut (not like the sausage), and Bee with sliced sirloin on a sandwich. The most amusing part of lunch was Jay's "Ensalada Rusa" (Russian Salad) which was in fact simply a half tomato laying a little shame-facedly beside the glorious slab of meat. A half bottle of good malbec was all that was required to complete the picture.

Here's the Wikipedia entry if you'd like a little more background.

Apologies in advance for the following photo deluge. (Our mobile blogging apps don't permit us the usual editing options, otherwise we would have tastefully inserted images into the body of the text!) Just  jump in and immerse yourselves in the glory of a storied bygone era!