Café Tortoni, Café in Monserrat, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Café Tortoni occupies an ornate building featuring marble tables, stained glass ceilings, and oak-paneled walls at 825 Avenida de Mayo. The space contains original furnishings and multiple rooms designed for dining, socializing, and games.
Founded in 1858 by the French immigrant Touan, the café stood at Rivadavia and Esmeralda before moving in 1880 into the ground floor of the Unzué residence on Rivadavia, with its old entrance kept as a back door to the billiard room. When Avenida de Mayo was cut through from 1888, the house lost its rear and gained a new facade by Norwegian architect Alejandro Christophersen, completed in 1898 in French academicist style. Celestino Curutchet bought the café at the end of the 19th century.
The basement wine cellar became the seat of La Peña, inaugurated on 24 May 1926 under painter Benito Quinquela Martín, and hosted concerts, recitals and debates until it closed in 1943. Its tables drew Alfonsina Storni, Jorge Luis Borges, Roberto Arlt and, once, Carlos Gardel, who sang a tango for Luigi Pirandello. Today the same room stages jazz and tango and hosts book and poetry contests.
The café operates daily from 8 AM to 4 PM and 8 PM to 1 AM, with Piedras subway station on line A nearby for easy access. Multiple rooms and seating areas make it simple to explore and find a comfortable spot.
The interior preserves 19th-century furnishings including a library and billiard tables that remain in use. Visitors can play traditional games like dominoes, keeping alive a form of entertainment from earlier times.
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