Café Tortoni
The café where Borges and Einstein both pulled up a chair, opened in 1858 by a Frenchman who missed Paris.
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Founded in 1858 and named after a gathering spot on Paris's Boulevard des Italiens, Café Tortoni has been operating at 825 Avenida de Mayo since its entrance moved there in 1898. The basement arts circle La Peña (1926–1943) drew Borges, Alfonsina Storni, and Arthur Rubinstein; that same basement now runs live jazz and tango nights. The fin de siècle decor has never been updated — by design.
What to look for
- The 1898 Avenida de Mayo facade, redesigned by architect Alejandro Christophersen
- The basement stage, still hosting jazz and tango performers
- The billiards tables and library tucked into the back of the main floor
At 825 Avenida de Mayo; the basement performances run separately from the café floor — check before you go if that's your reason for visiting.
Café Tortoni is one of 34 sights worth the detour in Buenos Aires, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Buenos Aires pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Buenos Aires
- Mas Monumental Stadium85,018 seats on reclaimed Río de la Plata marshland — the largest stadium in South America, and the ground where a World Cup Final was played.
- La BomboneraThat chocolate-box shape doesn't just look strange — the unusual design gives the bowl its famously excellent acoustics.
- Casa RosadaThe baby-pink paint was a political recipe: mix the Federalists' red with the Unitarians' white, and maybe stop a civil war.
- Teatro ColónAcoustics expert Leo Beranek surveyed leading international opera and orchestra directors and ranked this hall the world's best room for opera — not a slogan, a measured result.
- Oscar and Juan Gálvez Race TrackF1 cars once screamed through the third corner here at 305 km/h, flat out for 40 straight seconds — and the grandstands put you right on top of it.
- Palacio BaroloA 1923 tower mapped floor by floor onto Dante's Divine Comedy — hell at the base, purgatory in the middle, heaven at the top.