Buenos Aires | Palermo | Malasartes | Argentina

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The Heart Of Buenos Aires

This Argentine city's comeback is being led by Palermo, a trendy, relaxed neighborhood where you can get anything from hand-stitched leather to a drink at dawn.


IF YOU TURN around, you will freak out," says my companion. I am in a swilleria--pizzeria-café-bar called Malasartes in the Palermo Viejo neighborhood of Buenos Aires. And, as those in such a place are wont to do, my imbibing partner and I are drinking a number of strong concoctions. Behind me, as I have just been warned, the sun is rising.

All-nighters are supposedly de rigueur among younger Buenos Aires locals, or Porteños, as they call themselves. But all-nighters are abnormal for me, especially when they're -accompanied by cocktails. But what's even more surprising to me than my watching the sunrise from a bar is that I am watching it with plenty of company. Malasartes sits on Plazoleta Cortázar, a traffic circle that's ringed with -swilleria-pizzeria-café-bars, most of which have large outdoor seating areas. It is seven a.m., yet hundreds of people are here, moistening their mouths with Quilmes, the national beer of Argentina, and other adult beverages. I can see that just across Plazoleta Cortázar, a still-packed dance club is -thumpa--thumpa-thumping, even as the first light of day laps up against its tinted windows.

It would be silly to suggest that this thumpa-thumping could be the heartbeat of all Buenos Aires. But it's also silly to be drinking whiskey at seven a.m. So let's go ahead and suggest it.

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