- Café Tortoni
The Café Tortoni is a
coffeehouse located at #825 ofAvenida de Mayo inBuenos Aires ,Argentina . Inaugurated on 1858 by a French immigrant whose surname was Touan, it was named "Tortoni" after the local inParis at "Boulevard des Italiens" where the elite of the "Parissiense" culture gathered in the 19th century. Inspired byFin de siècle coffee houses.Previously it was the location of the "Templo Escocés" ("Scottish Temple"), and the "Tortoni" was located at the corner of Rivadavia and Esmeralda. In 1880 it was moved to its present location, but had its entrance from the other side of the block at Rivadavia street. In 1898 the entrance of "Avenida de Mayo" was opened, and the facade was redone by architect
Alejandro Christophersen . At the end of the 19th century the "café" was bought by another Frenchman; Celestino Curutchet.In the cellar located at the basement, "La Peña" (see
peña ) was inaugurated in 1926, which fomented the protection of the arts and literature until its disintegration in 1943. Among its visitors wereAlfonsina Storni ,Baldomero Fernández Moreno ,Juana de Ibarbourou ,Arthur Rubinstein ,Ricardo Vines ,Roberto Arlt ,José Ortega y Gasset ,Jorge Luis Borges ,Molina Campos andBenito Quinquela Martín .The tables of the "café" saw renowned figures such as politicians
Lisandro de la Torre andMarcelo Torcuato de Alvear , popular idolsCarlos Gardel andJuan Manuel Fangio , international figures likeAlbert Einstein ,Federico García Lorca ,Hillary Clinton ,Robert Duvall andJuan Carlos de Borbón .Currently the basement works as stage for
jazz and tango artists, and presentation of books and poetry contests.The coffeehouse conserves the decoration of its first years, has a library and at the back facilities to playbilliards ,dominoes anddarts .External links
* [http://www.cafetortoni.com.ar Café Tortoni official site]
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