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Since 1910 the northern area of the city has hosted the “well-off boys” who frequented downtown cabarets, where they squandered their money. This tour goes over the quarters of Recoleta, Palermo, Almagro and Balvanera, in a time journey taking us back to the crazy years of the 20’s and Tango’s Golden Decade, between the 40’s and 50’s.
From the hotels you can get to Anibal Troilo (Pichuco)’s Bar, situated at Paraná and Paraguay; next you can visit the “Palais de Glace”, built in 1911, the “Armenonville” at Libertador and Tagle, built in 1913 and where Gardel sang in 1927, “Les Ambassadeurs”, to be found in Figueroa Alcorta and Salguero, all of them symbols of the cabarets frequented by the bourgeois landowners. From here we go to “Parque Romano” in Las Heras and Malabia, which was the most popular dancing hall in the 40’s, as inland immigrants used to go there.
Afterwards the tour will take you to the milonga “La Viruta” (site of the Armenian Cultural Association), the “Club del Vino” at 4700, Cabrera Street, and to “Salón Canning” (site of the Hellenic Society of Mutual Care of the Greek community in Argentina). The tour will next let you see the house where Osvaldo Pugliese (1905-1995) lived, in Corrientes 3742 and the “Bar 12 de Octubre” in Bulnes 331.
Then the tour continues until “Bar O’Rondeman” in Agüero and Humahuaca, where Gardel used to sing since 1915 when he went from one tavern to another singing for money.
The circuit is continued by foot, reaching the old “Bar Chanta Cuatro” that used to have a “bochas” field (traditional countryside game played with wooden balls rolling on the ground) and where gambling was usual (today this is the Carlos Gardel Corner). The last spots here are the Monument to Carlos Gardel and the Carlos Gardel Museum in J. Jaures 735.
The last leg of the tour passes by the café “El Banderín” in Billinghurst and Guardia Vieja and the “Bar Pierino” or Corner of Astor Piazzola, in Billinghurst and Lavalle, where the musician used to go. From there on, walking along Corrientes Avenue, you get to the “Train of the Dead” Station (Corrientes and Boulogne Sur Mer), thus called because it was the last station before arriving to the Chacarita Cemetery, at the time of the yellow fever, in 1871. Finally you can see the house that inspired the poem “Setenta balcones y ninguna flor” (Seventy balconies and not a flower), written by the poet Baldomero Fernández Moreno (corner of Corrientes and Pueyrredón).
Please remind: Since on certain days some of these places do not open, the tour must adapt to this circumstance.
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