La Biela

La Biela is the classic café of Recoleta, on the corner of Junín and Avenida Quintana, about 100 metres from the Iglesia del Pilar and Recoleta Cemetery. It is one of the city's Bares Notables, and its history is as colourful as its location is convenient.

It began as a small bar with 18 tables on a narrow pavement. The city tourism board recounts that its first name, La Viridita, came from a neighbour's complaint about motorcycles, and that it was later known as the Aerobar, in honour of the aviation pilots whose offices were across the street. Its present name dates from around 1950, when the racing driver Beto Mieres broke a connecting rod, a biela in Spanish, at this corner and stopped for a coffee. His friends from the racing world adopted the café, calling it La Biela Fundida, and the name stuck. Drivers such as Juan Manuel Fangio, Froilán González and Charly Menditeguy were regulars, and because the national sports car association had no headquarters, the café was jokingly known as its office.

The café also has a strong literary connection. Life-size statues of Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares by the sculptor Fernando Pugliese sit at table 20, on the Junín and Quintana corner, the table where Bioy Casares liked to have lunch and write. The photographs above the bar were taken by Bioy Casares for a book by Borges, and the writer Silvina Ocampo was among the regulars, along with sports figures from the racing world.

The tourism board lists the café as open from 08:00 to midnight from Sunday to Thursday and until 01:00 on Friday and Saturday. That makes it useful at any time of day, from breakfast before visiting the cemetery to a drink in the evening. It suits couples, families and anyone who wants a break with a view of one of the city's most elegant corners.

La Biela is at Avenida Presidente Manuel Quintana 596. Recoleta Cemetery and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes are both in the same district, so a coffee here is the natural pause in a day of sightseeing in Recoleta.