Drinking in Buenos Aires

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The main areas to go out are: Puerto Madero,(close to the Casa Rosada). Safe during the day and night. At Recoleta area (close to the famous cemetery) there are also plenty of restaurants, bars and a cinema complex. This area used to be trendy but it is now mainly for tourists. Palermo SoHo and Palermo Hollywood are full of trendy stores, restaurants, and young and trendy bars. Palermo Las Cañitas is another nice area close to the Polo stadium. Also, San Telmo has a very bohemian, and very fun, nightlife scene.

Buenos Aires has a popular cafe culture.

Mate

• Cafe Tortoni Avenida de Mayo 829 between Piedras and Tacuari. Opened in 1858. The hot chocolate is incredible.
• Confiteria Richmond Florida 468 between Lavalle and Corrientes. Mentioned in Graham Greene' The Honorary Consul. Opened in 1913 but don't worry it has been modified since then.
• La Biela Quintana 596 nand RM Ortiz. Luxurious. You can sit outside underneath a huge ancient rubber tree for a little extra cost.
• Krakow Café Bar (Krakow Pub), Venezuela 474, San Telmo/Monserrat (betw.Defensa & Bolivar), ☎ +54 11 4342 3916‎, www.krakow-cafe.com.ar. 6pm-3am, F,Sat to 5am. This popular pub offers the best selection of tap beers in San Telmo, a huge variety of cocktails and top shelf liquors in a beautiful period location. Great European menu includes moderately priced tapas, picadas, pizzas, hamburgers and mains. An international crowd enjoys a large projection screen for sport events, Nintendo Wii, board games, free WiFi and comfortable sofas in the living room/club section of the pub. The staff is multilingual and modern music is kept at the right volume. Happy Hour is every day till 10PM. (-34.613795,-58.373033)
• Confiteria Ideal is ancient and less modified but fullof character; located at Suipacha 380.
• The unidentified cafe on the corner of Uriarte and Honduras in Palermo viejo (towards Santa Fe) has an incredible European ambiance with good food and lots of newspapers and magazines to read. Also try the community center across the street named "Club Eros", after the local football club, that serves great lunches and dinners for ridiculously low prices (expect to pay 16 pesos for a steak).

• Finisterra, 5190 Honduras (Corner of Uriarte), ☎ 15-6728-3621 (info@finisterra-bar.com), www.finisterra-bar.com. 10AM-5AM. Finisterra offers great delights at small prices in the warm and informal atmosphere of the classic Argentinean resto-bar.
• Las Violetas is also a lovely cafe, a bit off the beaten (tourist) path but you can take the oldest subway line in the city, Line A, to get there. Well worth the trip. Av. Rivadavia 3899 (Esquina Medrano)

• Try mate: You can buy a mate in any Coto or Carrefour (these are the names for two of the many supermarket chains available, like K-Mart or Wal-Mart) for 3-5 pesos and then a metal or bamboo "straw" (called a "bombilla") for around the same. Don't forget the yerba, the actual "tea" you drink; an excellent brand is Nobleza Gaucha, "Taragui", or "Rosamonte". Ask a local to help you in preparing and drinking the mate, since it's not as easy as it seems. Many visitors take mates as a gift when they leave and they become big fans (locals tend to drink it bitter (amargo), but foreigners generally like it sweet (dulce)). Outside the country, you can find yerba in Argentine stores in big cities like New York, Madrid, London, Paris, Miami, Tel-Aviv, and others.

• www.krakow-cafe.com.ar
• www.finisterra-bar.com