Café de los Angelitos tango show

Café de los Angelitos is one of the historic cafés of Buenos Aires, and today it is best known for its evening tango show. It stands on the corner of Avenida Rivadavia and Rincón in Balvanera, and it belongs to the city's list of Bares Notables, the cafés recognised for their place in local culture.

The café opened in 1890 as the Bar Rivadavia, a simple place with a dirt floor run by the Italian immigrant Bautisto Fazio. Around 1920 a new owner, Ángel Salgueiro, renovated it and gave it its present name. By then it was already a meeting place for musicians and payadores, the improvising folk singers, among them Gabino Ezeiza and José Betinotti. Carlos Gardel and his singing partner José Razzano kept a regular table here from 1912 until the early 1930s, and later figures from the tango world such as Osvaldo Pugliese, Aníbal Troilo and Cátulo Castillo also passed through. In 1944 Razzano and Castillo wrote the tango Café de los Angelitos in its honour.

The café closed in January 1992 after about a century, and the building fell into such poor condition that it was ordered demolished. It was rebuilt in 2006 and reopened in 2007, this time with a tango show at its heart, so what you see today is a careful reconstruction rather than the original rooms.

The café sells two main packages. The dinner-and-show option begins with transport pick-up at 19:30, dinner at 20:00 with a three-course menu and drinks included, then the show at 21:45, with the evening ending around 23:00. The show-only option starts at 21:45, and the performance itself lasts a little over an hour. Transport is included in both packages, which is helpful if you are staying some distance away. Book ahead through the website or by phone, and ask about dietary requirements when you reserve.

A dinner show is an easy introduction to tango for first-time visitors, couples and groups who would rather watch than dance, and the historical setting adds to the evening. If you want to try dancing yourself, save that for one of the city's milongas, the social dance halls, on another night. The café is at Avenida Rivadavia 2100, and it can be contacted on +54 11 4952 2320 or by email.