Buenos Aires Trip: Cafe de Los Angelitos

It’s an old cafe at the corner of Rivadavia and Rincon with high ceilings and every bit of old world charm that you can ask for.

I spent an afternoon there, writing. Tango music played in the background.

At one point, I knew the music had changed. I looked around to see where it was coming from. A mezzanine balcony inside the cafe had a man playing a Bandoneon, and it was this music that I had heard. What a treat it was. I could have written a masterpiece in that ambiance!

History goes, that the cafe was founded in 1890 under the name Bar Rivadavia, and became a congregation place for poets, singers, pimps, and thugs. The district police office called them the “little angels” or “los angelitos”. That’s how they got the name that is currently in vogue, since about 1920.

Today, this cafe is also a venue for some spectacular tango shows that I did not stay to see.

Now, if you want to take Tango lessons, or see a fully functioning dance hall in swing, you can go for the afternoon dances at Confiteria Ideal on Suipacha. It’s a beautiful old hall where Sally Potter’s Tango Lesson was filmed.

This segment is a part in the series : Buenos Aires Trip