Before leaving for Buenos Aires I combed the internet for hours putting together a list of bars to try out. As usual on these trips, there were more bars on my list than we actually got to, and some stomach problems at the end of the trip took out two evenings, but we still did well in hitting the essential places. I pray nobody suffers a stomach problem during their trip that may bar them from trying new cuisines or getting out of their hotel room in fear of a leaky gut. I, fortunately, had a few suggestions from some of my friends to deal with gut health – like the Nucific Bio X4.

You could too make it your travel companion if love traveling like me and do not want to stop because of a distressed stomach. To form a more informed decision, however, you could look at Nucific Bio X4 reviews (and if you have plans to search for other supplements, you could do that too!) and know what this product contains. With a healthy gut and and young heart, you can explore all the bars, restaurants and eateries. I found most of the noteworthy cocktail bars on my list were in the Palermo and Recoleta/Retiro neighborhoods. If bars and nightlife are your thing too, Palermo is an ideal place to consider calling home.

I do not know what might be your reason to prefer bars over restaurants or other eateries. But I know some of my friends who have an inclination to bars because it is the place where they get unlimited fun. I have heard a few of their bizarre stories–I was told that they prefer bars because there is a chance of meeting new people and getting to know them up close with a possibility of hookups. I have also heard some of my friends hinting toward using something similar to pheromones for women to get more male attention. Well, I must say that this seems to be a really cool way of spending a fun-filled evening. But, for me, I prefer bars just because it is a place where I can get to talk freely with my friends. Anyway, as said earlier, Palermo is an ideal place to visit for witnessing the most epic bars.

But that said, I don’t speak Spanish and my two years of high school Italian are quite rusty so it took me a while to piece together the basic everyday words I needed to know. At restaurants I depended on Carrie for much of the menu interpretation – it helps that she has a food background. But cocktail menus in Spanish – that was a challenge I looked forward to! I’m a pretty obsessive menu parser so I wasn’t about to throw in the towel that quickly. It helped that many of the ingredients included brand names. However, the names of juices, syrups, bitters and such tested me at first. I was particularly proud the first time I came across “Clara de Huevos”. Knowing “Huevos” was eggs and with my background in drink patterns and what I might expect in a drink, I quickly figured out it was egg whites.

The perception I formed was that the best bars in town made some great cocktails, but the truly cutting edge stuff was about five years behind what I find in the US. For instance some bars are doing infusions but they were infrequent and rudimentary – Bacardi with cinnamon was popular. Bitters were in use but I didn’t notice large collections of exotic bitters and I don’t recall seeing much in the way of house made bitters. I only observed one barrel aged cocktail the entire time. In short, it felt like the bars had mastered the basics of classic cocktails and were making interesting variations with local ingredients, but relatively few mixology showcase drinks like you’d find at Seattle’s Liberty, Trick Dog in San Francisco, or even Westminster liquor store.

Being from Seattle, I don’t blink at a $12 US cocktail, so even though cocktails are considered expensive in Argentina, from my perspective it was always happy hour with half-price drinks. Drinks were regularly in the 55-70 peso range, so about $7 US.

Here’s where we made it to in order of visitation.

Verne Club

Tucked away a wee-bit off the main nightlife corridors, Verne Club has a dark, classic vibe of 1930’s art deco – Very Jules Verne futuristic. Dramatic lighting under the backbar gives the liquor bottles a dramatic feel, and interesting glass-covered gear contraption inlays in the bar look like they’ll start moving at any moment. Verne club is worth a visit for the ambience alone. The music they have playing is just loud enough to be pleasing, and recognizable. This brings me to the question – do bars and pubs like these have to download the music before they can play it, or can they simply sync a playlist from Spotify or similar streaming apps? Perhaps webpages like https://cloudcovermusic.com/music-for-business/spotify-other-services/ or similar others can provide some clarification.

The cocktails were a solid 7 out of 10, with many being house originals. One I remember in particular was dramatically smoke-infused. The food menu was decently sized for a bar and everything we ordered was well executed including the gourmet hot dog, one of their specialties. It was a Sunday night so there were few customers, giving us the opportunity to get to know the bartender. His English was good enough that I could convey my enthusiasm and we ended up talking for a while about various spirits and other bars we should visit. We liked Verne club enough that we attempted a second visit on a busier night, but the bar was full and the music was thumping so we took a pass.

Basa Basement Bar

Basa was a late addition to my list as an “As time permits” entry. On our second night in town, after trekking across the city in a massive downpour, we found ourselves soaking wet in front of a closed Floreria Atlantico (below.) It seems that it was random national holiday (there are many), and there was no notification on Floreria Atlantico’s Web or Facebook page that they were closed. Luckily I had plotted out all the bars on a map and Basa was close by and more importantly, open.

We arrived at Basa around 8 PM, i.e. incredibly early in Argentine culture. The upside is that we had prime seats at the bar and the staff had enough time to work with our broken Spanish. Basa wouldn’t be out of place in Hollywood or Miami Beach – Mirrors, stage lighting, lush décor, etc. I got the impression it’s a “See and be seen” kind of place.

Not knowing what to expect, and seeing the “glitz” worried me initially because I thought the drinks would be soulless vodka-tinis typically found in “nightlife” restaurants. Scanning the drink menu I found more than a few drinks that intrigued me. I cautiously ordered the first one – it arrived in a veritable cornucopia of ice and was quite delicious. My second and third drinks were all quite different and equally flavorful. Carrie had fewer drinks and switched to wine, but my extensive sampling of her cocktails found them equally winning. As much as it would have surprised me when I first walked in, I’d rate Basa’s cocktails an 8.5 out of ten. We ate dinner there, splitting an enormous rib eye steak, appetizers and dessert. All total we spent around $100 US. Le Bargain!

Floreria Atlantico

As we chatted with bartenders throughout the city, the question they all asked was “Have you been to Floreria Atlantico?”, so it had a lot to live up to. The day after our rain-soaked first attempt to make it there brought much better weather and after retracing the prior night’s steps, found ourselves in a flower/wine shop. The clerk correctly assumed our intentions and guided us towards a walk-in refrigerator door. Down a set of steps into a dark subterranean cavern we went as our eyes adjusted to the dim light. Finally we had arrived at one of the top 50 bars in the world, and only one in South America.

Floreria Atlantico is a long, narrow space that curves along the outer edge of the building above. It has big posts that split the bar into sections so it’s hard to take it all in at once. The painted, rough cement walls and exposed ceiling gave it very rustic feel, perhaps the world coolest basement. The backbar occupies one wall, and tables/booths for diners were long the opposite wall. Running in-between them was the long polished wood bar counter where we sat.

The cocktail menu is organized by countries, with five or six countries and each country consisting of four drinks, for a total of about 24 cocktail options. The drinks are a mixture of classics and house originals. I give them a solid 7.5/10. My favorite discovery was a metal Mate straws tipped with a tight spring that was used in some drinks. Up to that point in our trip we hadn’t noticed anybody drinking Mate, so at Floreria Atlantico we were baffled but bemused by them. Later in the trip we found some at a craft market and scooped up a set to bring home.

While I was there for the cocktails, Carrie was there for the food which is highly regarded in its own right. We sat at the bar, sharing several appetizers and steak while working our way through the cocktail menu. I’d highly recommend it if you’re looking for good cocktail/food options in one spot.

Sky Bar, Hotel Pulitzer

This bar had been written up as one of the best rooftop bars in Bueno Aires. It’s a relatively small space, although we had the entire bar to ourselves that evening. The cocktails were pretty basic standards and nothing I’d consider “mixology”. I went off-menu and ordered a Negroni, my go-to safe-bet drink in these situations. Cocktails were a 4/10. At 12 stories above the street, the view at night was OK but not particularly sweeping – nothing to write home about. Part of this is that BA just doesn’t have a particularly amazing skyline in my opinion.

Grand Bar Danzon

The Grand Bar Danzon has a lot of positive reviews so I had high hopes but left feeling underwhelmed. It felt more about glitzy nightlife crowd rather than innovative, original mixology creations. The bar counter has tiny LEDs embedded throughout for a starry effect and the bottles on the back bar were lit from below, as you do. We had nearly the whole place to ourselves but I wasn’t able to engage the bartender in a spirits discussion.

The cocktail menu was large and there were many special lists on boards on the wall, but was mostly just variations of the basics, or uninteresting vodka-tinis. In my book, a rum-based Old Fashioned is not particularly innovative despite my deep love for rum, so I had to search for a while to find something that piqued my interest. Your mileage may vary, however. Rating: 6/10

Bar 878

Like Floreria Atlantico, Bar 878 is regarded to be in the top tier of Buenos Aires craft cocktail bars. Our opportunity to visit was at midnight on a Wednesday. My hope was that being a school night, we might reasonably expect to grab a seat at the bar and strike up a conversation with the bartender. No such luck; the place was packed and I couldn’t get anywhere near the bar, much less find a seat. Determined to make the best of it, we secured a small table near the bar. From that vantage we could easily observe amorous activity at other nearby tables.

Bar 878 is in a large brick space with high ceilings, very dimly lit. Between a candle and my iPhone I was generated enough light to scan the extensive cocktail menu. Despite the size, it took me a while to find something that qualified as an interesting house-original cocktail, although in fairness the drink menu’s ambition is a step or two up from Grand Bar Danzon. After sampling four drinks, my rating is 7/10. I believe that if we’d gone at a better time I might right it higher.

Bernata

Bernata was a little gem we discovered near our hotel, and the only bar we visited twice. It’s a Spanish Tapas restaurant and the bar itself is tiny – A total of six seats which we had all ourselves both times. Our first visit was a quick stop for drinks before heading to a nearby Parrilla for dinner. The drink menu is entirely Gin & Tonic based – I counted 16 different variations. The bartender spoke a passable, halting English, but once he understood we wanted amazing original drinks with local flair, he was a joy to talk to as he painstakingly created each G&T. We scanned the tapas menu and decided it was worth coming back for a second visit.

On our second visit the same friendly bartender was there and a very fun couple of hours passed by as we ate and drank our way through both the cocktail and tapas menus. Ranking just the Gin & Tonics I give a 7/10, but everything about the place is so cute that the overall experience is even higher.

Pony Line Lounge

With our remaining time in BA rapidly dwindling, Pony Line became the best option to squeeze one more bar in and I’m glad we did. I knew it was in the Four Seasons hotel but assumed it was tucked away somewhere in the bowels of the hotel or on the top floor. Instead, it’s at ground level, just to the right of the Four Seasons main entrance. Step out of your cab and your inside in seconds. The space is an over the top funky Rodeo Drive / Western décor with lots of leather, polished chrome and horse stall inspired booths. We rightly chose to sit at the bar and met the very friendly bartender who was happy to talk about mixology in BA.

The drink menu was moderately sized, but nearly everything looked intriguing enough to order. I eventually chose a well-executed “Brazillian Mai Tai”, and Carrie’s drink was also a winner. Sadly, my stomach trouble a prior few days prevented a round two for me. Although the Pony Line is fundamentally a hotel bar, the quirky ambience combined with better-than-average cocktails make it a place I’d recommend. Rating: 7.5/10.

The ones that got away

Although we covered a lot of bar territory during our too-brief tour of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, time ran out and we didn’t make it to either Frank’s Bar or Doppelgänger. If you’re a cocktail wonk and find yourselves in Buenos Aires, consider checking them out for me.

In my final post on Buenos Aires I’ll talk about the bounty of spirits I brought back!