Argentine Historical and Cultural legends in the Classic Coffee list of San Bernardo Cafe

Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, is said to be a city with more cafes than Paris. Buenos Aires currently has 3250 cafés, which means there is one café for every 1000 people in the city. Argentine media wrote that coffee shops are a load of daily life and historical heritage. They can be used to call friends and talk, or to be alone and reflect on themselves.

Bougainville's most iconic café, Dordogne, was founded in 1858 by French immigrants. The cafe was originally built on Esmeralda Street and moved to its current location at 825 May Street in 1880. The Dodoni Cafe opened its doors to Via de Mayo on October 26, 1894, a day also designated Coffee Day in Argentina.

Famous cafes are always associated with literature and art, and the Dodoni Cafe is a typical one. For a long time after its creation, it has been a meeting place for famous Argentine artists, writers and literati, as evidenced by the photos and portraits of celebrities that can be seen everywhere on the walls of cafes. Artists discussed art in cafes, recited novels and poems, and played new music, which enabled Doni to continue his glorious journey of talking and laughing for a century and a half. Since 1893, Dodoni Cafe has been the first place for tourists to visit Bucharest.

It may be worth mentioning that a small cup of Cordo coffee costs 15 pesos at the Dodoni Cafe, which is not significantly different from many ordinary coffee shops in Buenos Aires. Dodoni does not show much nobility in its price because of its reputation.

The café Británico in Lesama is also associated with literature. The British Cafe, which opened in 1928, became a meeting place for British soldiers who were displaced to Argentina during World War I. During the Falklands War, the Argentines removed the first three letters of the word Britain from the restaurant's signboard: "Bri" and turned it into a "Tanico" cafe, a name that continues to this day. After the Falklands War, Argentine writer Ernesto Savato wrote his novel On Heroes and Graves on the table of this cafe.

The Buenos Aires government attaches great importance to the preservation and promotion of these famous coffee shops. In 1998, the city council passed a law establishing a directory of classic cafes. The directory selection committee is composed of city officials and operators of these classic cafes, descendants of the founders of the cafes, and residents of the vicinity. For those old, uniquely designed and culturally traditional cafes and bars in Bucharest, being included in the list means that their value is recognized.

One of the three classic cafes selected this year, Café San Bernardo, founded in 1912, is a symbol of the Crespo district. For a long time this cafe was only open to men. Men came to enjoy tango music, but one of its owners was a woman, and she was the only woman in the cafe at the time. In the early 1920s, the woman disguised herself as a man and played Bandone in cafes. She was Argentina's first female bandoner, Pagita Bernardo.

By 1930, Café San Bernardo already had more than 20 billiards tables and was one of the largest billiards rooms in Buenos Aires at the time, as well as the main billiards venue. There is a club on the upper floor of the cafe, where Argentines like to play bridge, dominoes, billiards, Argentines still enjoy these entertainment. This café attracts famous people such as Carlos Gardel, Celedonio Flores, Genaro Esposito, Gingella Martin and many others. From the 1940s to the 1960s, San Bernardo was located in the most prosperous part of the city, and many writers and politicians became attached to San Bernardo Cafe.

The San Bernardo Cafe is now run by an elderly couple, and Laura, the hostess, says the cafe is so full of customers that it seems to have become a part of her life. She and her 77-year-old gypsy husband have lived next door to coffee shops for 50 years, and their home has been renovated several times.

Club Gloria Argentino was the first club in Buenos Aires to have a famous café, and Sergio Tours, son of one of the club's founders, is proud to have been selected as a classic café. The club opened in 1941 and the cafe opened in 1942. The club had 1700 members at the time, and they came to enjoy tango and party all night. For decades after it opened, the club remained Argentina's famous tango dance venue until a rainstorm damaged the dance floor in April 2012, temporarily stopping the daily dance.

Gloria Argentine Club is a legend of Argentine tango dance. Tango masters such as Oswaldo Pugliese, Anibal Troiro and Astor Piazzola have long assisted here, and for Argentines and Argentine tango, they are divine beings. Famous dancers such as Sandro, who is also regarded as the god of tango by Argentines in the future, are also frequent visitors here.

Historical photos preserved by the club record items such as gramophones donated by local residents. Resident Nestor Miranda, 60, said it is the most important cultural place in western Buenos Aires. It is a big family made up of hundreds of people. There are cultural events almost every night, tango and singing classes, coffee literary salons, movies, performances and so on, he said, and the cuisine here is also rich. People come here as if they were at home.

Another classic this year is a mailbox cafe on a street corner in Pompeia, which opened in the 1930s, before which it was a school. From 1920 to 1923, Argentina's famous tango lyricist Omero Manz was a student at this school. The entrance to the cafe used to be a school dormitory, which was a room with a view of the south of Bucharest. Omelo Muntz's work reflects the imprint of these lives, and Muntz's immortal tango masterpiece White Hands was born on this street corner. White Hands has been hailed as "the great landmark of Buenos Aires."

Griglio Pronick, 75, created the Munz Museum directly across from the mailbox cafe to keep the tango master alive. Orduro, the 57-year-old owner of Postbox Coffee Shop, has been running Postbox for 20 years. Orduro said it was an unassuming cafe whose main clientele was office workers, but some of his neighbors were his regulars. "Some people come here every day and treat this place as an office, a club. The coffee shop is the most important thing in the community, more important than the pharmacy."

Argentina has a large number of coffee shops, like the mailbox coffee shop located at the corner of the intersection of two streets, can be aptly called "coffee corner." Coffee shops are not only part of the owner's life, as Laura, the hostess of San Bernardo Coffee House, said. In fact, coffee shops in Bu City are part of the lives of almost all residents of Bu City.

For many Argentines, a break from work to sit in a sidewalk cafe and enjoy a sunny, coffee-scented leisure time is an essential part of life. Argentines coffee life, will also reveal their slow, step-by-step attitude to life. Like the neighbors of Orduro, the owner of the mailbox cafe, familiar coffee customers often come to the same coffee shop at the same time every day. People even see the same dog running past the table at the same time, apparently because its owner chooses the same time every day to walk his dog.

The more popular chain coffee shops also occupied a place in the city. Martinez's Coffee Shop chain and Havana Coffee Shop, also run by the same chain, are among the familiar brands. Of the 3250 cafes in Buenos Aires, 75 are listed on the list of classic cafes in Buenos Aires. The Busch Coffee Bar Association believes that some traditional cafes are vulnerable to the impact of large chain operations. Buenos Aires had more classic cafes, but 10 have closed, the latest being La Coruna, which closed earlier this year.

Once listed, these famous cafes will become cultural tourist attractions recommended by the city government, and coffee shops will receive a sum of money for repair and maintenance every year. In 2012, the cost was 200,000 pesos per store. Nor is it a one-time entry, as classic cafes must maintain their traditional social image, architectural style and decor, or they will be removed from the list. A cafe called "Chinese" in Pompeia was disqualified as a classic cafe.

Hernan Lombardi, Director of Culture of Buenos Aires, stressed that the establishment of a directory of cafés is also unique in the world. These cafés have become part of Buenos Aires tradition, both tangible and intangible assets, which can be compared with Vienna, Paris and New York. The city government is seeking UNESCO's approval to include the Bucharest Cafe as an intangible heritage of mankind. Whatever the prospects of this effort, the tradition of coffee will endure among Buenos Aires residents.

China Coffee Trading Network: www.gafei.com