Private Clubs No Longer So Private
Today's New York Times travel section sports a a short piece by yours truly on the rise of private and hidden clubs in Buenos Aires. Rather than explain the piece--which you can read yourself--I'd like to take a trip down Travel Story Lane. First came my initial observations here in GoodAirs. Then, there were two posts I put on Gridskipper in July and August. Then, after pitching, delving, crafting and editing with the folks at the Gray Lady, we have the 500 words of definitive fun in the NYT (not to mention this shameless attempt to flog traffic to the story). Now I think it's time for me to swear to never touch the subject again.
But seriously, there are a bunch of new private/hidden clubs, bars and restaurants in Buenos Aires. Several that only get a short mention in the article--Ocho7Ocho and Providencia--are great places. And another to note, not in the piece, is a place called Almacén Secreto (call 11 4775 1271 in Buenos Aires), that serves northern Argentine cuisine and does not accept walk-up business, only reservations.
posted by Ian @ 11:33 AM
8 comments
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8 Comments:
Your article on the hidden hotspots of Bs. As. was a look at a tiny sliver of the tiniest portion of Portenio (sorry) life- and a part that is truly boring and irrelevant to 99.995 percent of the people that live in Argentina. My family is from Bs. As., and I lived there for some time. I understand that perhaps on article on this, as opposed to Argentina's huge problem with working children, would be of interest to you or some of the Times readership, but I personally found it revolting. Most people there have a hard enough time buying the canasta familiar en el super, llenar la changuita.
Gracias.
Dodi Levine yirayira22@yahoo.com
Hi, I am from Argentina, living in the UK (for five years now, married with an English man, and with two little boys (3 and 1 year old). I found your website by chance, because we are travelling to Argentina for a well deserved holiday and going with my parents to Mar de las Pampas for the first time (we used to go to Pinamar or Carilo). It is a good site, and for me it is interesting to see "un extranjero"'s point of view of our delightful country. I will add it to my favourites!! And if you need any help with your Spanish, let me know.
Regards,
Marianela Frontaloni (now Smith!)
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Dear Dodi:
While I understand your concern about poverty in Argentina--and while I don't want to seem ungenerous--I would suggest you read more before launching long diatribes such as the above. A few points:
1. The article appeared in the Travel section of the New York Times and was meant, as travel stories generally are, to portray something that's reasonably new and that people can visit when they go on vacation. While some travel articles do cover poverty from a sort of "doing good while traveling" approach, they're few and far between.
2. As far as the story being of interest to few people, for the last day or so it's been the most e-mailed travel story on the NYT site. Whether people like it or hate it, I don't know, but it seems to interest them.
3. It's very hard to sell articles about poverty. Trust me, I've tried many, many times. The only one I've managed to find a home for dealt with the appearance of poverty tourism in the villas of Buenos Aires (specifically in Villa 20 in Lugano). The transcript of the story--a radio piece for the WNYC show On the Media--is here: http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/transcripts_120905_poor.html
4. While I haven't had much luck selling stories about poverty, I haven't written a bunch about it here, for free. Check out any of these posts or type "poverty" into the search box at the top of this page:
http://www.goodairs.com/2006/07/argentine-poverty.html
http://www.goodairs.com/2005/11/recycling-as-social-program.html
http://www.goodairs.com/2005/10/argentine-elections-and-clientelismo.html
http://www.goodairs.com/2006/06/ftbol-y-el-alma-argentina.html
Thanks,
Ian Mount
hi ian
great post and certainly your writing is very relevant to the dynamic society that Buenos Aires is becoming today.
I also live in palermo soho and the changes in the last 4 years here are incredible and I dont beleive that its a very small percent as stated by an argentine expat.
I beleive that a huge segment of argentine society is greatly benefiting from the economic boom and if you look across the board it is apparent from La Boca to Salta Jujuy and of couse Patagonia.
I am very positive that the changes here are long lasting
perry
Ian- thanks for your answer to my post, although I don't think my 2 paragraphs merits being called a "diatribe." Thank you also for posting the url's for the other articles, which I'll read. I hope when I come back that,indeed,the boom and money in Palermo are really benefiting much less upscale barrios on either side of Avenida General Paz.
Regards,
Dodi Levine
damn! there goes another bar that was worth going to. Now Ocho7Ocho will become another American bar, just the same way that Congo has gone down down down... I love your blog and I know you need to sell articles, but as far as I understand from talking to the bartenders, part of Ocho7Ocho's policy is to NOT advertise for the point of trying to retain more of a local "in the know" crowd, rather than be overrun by the tourist crowd.
Anyway I can't bear a grudge that long since I too am in the freelance biz and understand that a paying gig is a paying gig...
Reading dodi levines comments reminds of of those argentines who abandoned their country in droves years ago then seem to not be happy that it is getting its act together and doing a fine job.
The new foreigners seem in the main to be very respectful to Argentina and argentine laws .
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