Cafe Tortoni, by Baldomero Fernandez Moreno – 1925

Alfonsina Storni's Room

In spite of the rain I have gone out
To drink a coffee. I am sitting,
Underneath the stretched and soaking awning,
Of this old known Tortoni.

How many times, oh dad! Have you come?
From your serious business exhausted,
To smoke a perfumed cigar,
And play the well-known card game.

Melancholic, poor, exposed,
Your son repeats your steps, dead dad,
The rain sounds, my eyes cloud over.

Some people get off the subway,
An aching voice announces newspapers,
The big red buses wheel along.

All the capital cities of the world have their curiosities, or what we may call their “usual places”. One of these “usual places” could be their most traditional or oldest coffee shop. In this way, Madrid has its Café Gijon, a meeting place for artists and writers. And Rome and Paris have their own too. But none of them will have the smell, colours, and human warmth of the Café Tortoni, one of Buenos Aires prides, and of which a lot has been written.

A French immigrant named Touan decided to inaugurate this café by the end of 1858. In Buenos Aires merchant map, edited in 1870, the coffee shop is located in the corner of Rivadavia and Esmeralda Streets under the name of its owner. The name “Tortoni” was taken from a café in the Boulevard des Italiens, inaugurated in 1798 by a Napolitano who made his fortune in Paris, and in which the elite of Parisian culture gathered in the XIXth century. This café no longer exists.

The Café Tortoni was moved to its current location, with the main entrance on Rivadavia Street, in 1880. In 1894, when May Avenue was born, the café opens its second entrance. Buenos Aires ghosts have entered through both doors.

Today's reading room was originally the cafe's barbershop

The reading room used to be the café’s barbershop. It was usual for cafes to have a barber shop inside in those times in Buenos Aires. One of Buenos Aires Mayors donated 80 books in order to start a Tango and Buenos Aires Slang (“lunfardo”) Library. The “Lunfardo” Academy used to meet in this room.

The balcony above the kitchen might be the only one left in a café in Buenos Aires. The Tango Orchestras, Ladies Orchestras or Jukebox players would perform in it. The Ladies Orchestras would play, out of tune most of the times, either quicksteps, foxtrots, waltzes, or melodies of what was called “light music”, mixing in tarantellas and parts of Debussy.

The Jukebox players were women who stood on the balcony and kept the music playing in the room when no orchestras were performing. They would attend the clients’ requests either from the balcony, or from behind the counter.

The underground room was given to “La Peña” in 1926. “La Peña” was an organization that promoted the protection of arts until it disappeared in 1943. It was lead by Benito Quinquela Martin. Once “La Peña” disappeared, the café decided to continue the cultural tradition of the underground room and name it Quinquela Martin’s Room.