Café de Garcia

When I first started researching the Notable Bars of Buenos Aires, I hadn’t been living in Buenos Aires long and Café de Garcia stood out as the kind of place I wanted to visit – it’s out on the edge of the city, a long way from Palermo and being away from the tourist bubble I hoped it would get me close to the “real” Buenos Aires bar.

So, when I finally made it out there, would I be disappointed? Simply put, no – it lived up to all of my expectations. There’s plenty of seating outside, but more than half of the interior is taken up with billiard tables. I took this as a good sign – anywhere that it willing to sacrifice that much space for old boys to play bar games is OK with me.

Many of the Notable Bars have walls lined with paraphernalia of various kinds, from football banners to car parts. Café de Garcia however has struck the motherlode as it proudly features a genuine legendary artifact, a football top signed by one-time
Villa Devoto resident, Diego Maradona.

This is not what people come to Café de Garcia for however – it is renowned for its legendary (according to them) picada. A picada normally consists of a few chunks of ham, cheese and salami, served on a wooden board and washed down with a cold Quilmes.

The Garcia’s picada is a monster of a thing – the waiter proudly showed us the list of delights that will be brought to your table (should you be lucky enough to get one – reservations of at least a week in advance are advisable we were told). Even champagne is included.

Served in a backroom, itself cluttered with enough memorabilia to start a flea market stall, they are obviously very proud of their signature meal – the waiter spent at least 20 minutes talking about it. We didn’t get to try it this time, but we’ll be back.

Café de Garcia: Sanabria 3302
Train: Devoto, Linea San Martín

This page is part of a series examining the Notable Bars of Buenos Aires.