Gabyn, my partner, always repeats the same sentence when I rate a building, a structure or a monument positively. He says, “Yes, but You have to see how it ages“She is an architect, she projects the passage of time and its consequences onto my judgment, which only expresses the feelings experienced in the present. Of course, coffees are not exempt from her professional judgment. I bring it up because today I get around to telling it.” one of the best aged cafes in Buenos Aires and represents the course of history in the city over the last century. It’s that Bar Los Galgos.
Los Galgos is located in the intersection of Avenida Callao and Lavalle. What important detail can be told about the corner? Since 1857, the line of the first railway to operate in Argentina ran along the Lavalle Strait. The route had been part of the Western Railway of the State of Buenos Aires since 1852, an independent and separate territory of the Argentine Confederation – chaired by Justo José de Urquiza, after the troops of the Entre Ríos General, who won the Battle of Caseros, were expelled by the population of Buenos Aires in the September 11 Revolution of that year. The locomotive was called: La Portena. And if. It started at Parque station, which was located on the site now occupied by the Teatro Colón, and went through Lavalle to the intersection with Callao, where it snaked to reach Calle Corrientes. This arch, which broke with the grid-shaped floor plan, was called Rauch Passage until 2005, when the city council changed the name to Enrique Santos Discépolo.
Parque station operated until 1883, when the terminal was moved to the current Once station as the city grew and the center had to be evacuated. At this point, Callao was presented as an elegant street boulevard Parisian, where noble residences and monumental buildings were built. For example, the building where Bar Los Galgos is located was once the home of the Lezama family, the same is located in the park between San Telmo, Barracas and La Boca and in the area that gives its name to the municipality of Buenos Aires.
Later, Casa Lezama was used in different ways. It was rented by the Singer company and there was also a pharmacy on the ground floor. In 1930, an Asturian who loved greyhound racing converted it into a warehouse bar with drinks delivery. I have already told you in previous stories what was special about this year. During the same period, the bars La Academia, La Giralda and the bar Almacén Lavalle were opened near Los Galgos. Everyone is still alive today and drinking coffee. It should be remembered that in 1930 the Great Depression, caused by the crack Financier of the New York Stock Exchange, took over the presidency from Hipólito Yrigoyen. One day before this first coup, Carlos Gardel took up tango Yira Yira with lyrics and music by Enrique Santos Discépolo. Always Discépolo. The corner of Callao and Lavalle. The Greyhounds Bar. Why do I focus on these facts? For several reasons. Firstly, from what the historian and essayist Sergio Pujol explains in his book Discépolo, an Argentine biography: “After 1930, Argentine society began to feel more and more Discepolian, and Enrique was hailed as the great Hermeneuta of the Argentine spirit. His tangos thus became the bitter oracle of a country conscious of its limitations and frustrations.”.
And secondly, because towards the end of his life, Discepolín moved into an apartment at Callao 765 with his wife, the singer Tania. Just a block and a half from Los Galgos. Almost at the same time, the bar passed into the hands of the Ramos family. It was 1948. That year, Discépolo wrote the text of Buenos Aires cafeour coffee anthem. And he must have walked through the door of the Ramos bar every day on the way to the SADAIC headquarters in Lavalle 1547. I want to believe he must have remembered his childhood playing “ñata against the glass” and humming about ’s friends “José, the one with the chimera… Marcial, who still believes and hopes… and the skinny Abel, who has left us but still guides me.” coincidences. Synchronicity. I choose to believe.
Discépolo died in his home in Callao in 1951. The wake was held at SADAIC, where our Hermeneuta, as Pujol calls him, became vice president. The entire artist colony said goodbye to his remains. Also President Juan Domingo Perón. Evita, a personal friend who was recovering from her illness – she would die a few months later – did not have the strength to come and say goodbye.
The decline of Peronism occurred in 1955 and there are no comments on the second half of the 20th century. You will all have your own life experience. Meanwhile, the Ramos continued to celebrate birthdays until they got very old and the bar ran out of business. In 2015 it was closed and rapid dismantling began.
When the news reached the ears Julián Diaz and Florencia Capellathe founding couple of the bar “878” in Villa Crespo, the story of Los Galgos took off again. Julian is a chef, Sommelier And barman. Florencia is a graphic designer, illustrator and teacher. Together with Natalia Elichirigoity, they redesigned the bar’s logo. Before, greyhounds looked like they were sitting. Today they can be seen active. In his own.
Julián and Florencia decided not to let the bar die, but to achieve this they had to recover the furniture, objects and, above all, the two ceramic greyhounds – one black and the other white – that have been the symbol of the corner for the last 85 years.
Julián says that the renovation was not as complicated as one might assume: “Soon after the closure was announced, a campaign was launched to reopen it and avoid dismantling Boiseriethe bar cabinet, some of the original furniture and the swan tap. We also recovered one of the greyhounds. We know who has the other one, but he didn’t want to part with it for sentimental reasons.”
Like the founders of Los Galgos, Julián is the great-grandson of the Asturians. His predecessors were the owners of the Tren Mixto bar in front of La Plata train station. His grandparents also worked there. But his father’s generation received an academic education and took a different direction. In the meantime, Julián has grown up with counter-stories and anecdotes from customers. When he came of age, he inherited the Asturian family inheritance that had been brought to Buenos Aires from the city of Sama de Langreo. In fact, the bar’s corporate name is Los Galgos Tren Mixto.
With Florencia they repeated the formula put into practice at Bar 878: they bet on the quality of products and the preservation of traditions, but without neglecting the updates, information and knowledge that guests acquire over time.
For example, they don’t classify themselves as specialty coffee, but rather prepare it in an Italian machine at a Simonelli level. premium. All baked goods are made on site. From the most basic. Like the crescent, on the other hand a delicacy. Julian says: “Los Galgos is a bar with Buenos Aires cuisine”. A statement that he maintains in print because they published the book together with the gastronomy journalist Rodo Reich Cuisine of Buenos Aires. 170 recipes from Bar Notable in Buenos Aires. The greyhoundsPlaneta Editorial (2023). Yes, you read that right, it says 170.
In it rank Of the dishes most commonly served in Los Galgos, the traditional ones are spicy. Milanese dishes, pasta, omelettes and donuts. “We make sure that the products are transversal but have a special quality,” emphasizes Julián.
So why did I say at the beginning of the note that Bar Los Galgos has aged well?
I have just given most of the answer. Sumo that during the restoration of the corner, the basement of the bar was restored to create a production, storage and cellar area. The first floor, where the Ramos family lived, was also used for commercial purposes.
I repeat, The Los Galgos bar opened in 1930. He witnessed the infamous decade, the environmental changes, the Peronist governments, the emergence of pop and rock, the dictatorship, the democratic spring and radical presidencies, Menemism, the 2001 crisis, democratic continuity, the pandemic, the recent cultural and consumer changes. It accompanied all the facts listed without changing its interior or identity. Today, on the occasion of its 100th anniversary, it is run by young people who love their work and produce with a local seal. Don’t tell me that doesn’t mean aging gracefully.
The Los Galgos bar is a landmark of the city. If you want to explain what Buenos Aires was like and what it is, but you are at a loss for words, invite the interlocutor to a coffee at Los Galgos. Let’s try their Milanese dishes. Drink vermouth in the evening. Our predecessors were there. We’re still here. It is part of the essence of Buenos Aires. For cafés that fall into the “non-place” category, those that have not yet fully defined their vague concepts, or those that seek to articulate deterritorialized narratives, the city also offers a diverse offering. And quite successfully. You choose the path. And the company that travels it. There is no need to get angry. We all live in the same city and love going to the cafe. The famous Hermeneuta neighbor of the bar Los Galgos already said it: “If someone lives in fraud and someone else steals his ambition, it doesn’t matter whether he is a priest, colchonero, club king, cheeky or stowaway!”
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