Top Ten de Bares Porteños

Recently Buenos Aires's city blog, Pasa en Buenos Aires, pointed to an article put out by the the city's tourism board listing the city's Top 10 Bars. Now, leaving aside the question of who could have paid who to get on a city-published Top 10 lists, it's a good round up. These are not the top bars to get plastered at, not the best places to meet a member of the opposite (or same) sex. They are, instead, the best of the classic--from the überfamous but still beautiful Café Tortoni to the billiard salon Los 36 Billares to the underground nightlife cool of Bar 12 de Octubre. So what makes a Buenos Aires café unique? As Horacio Spinetto, architect and author of the 2000 book "Cafés de Buenos Aires," explains here, Buenos Aires cafes and bars are like those of Paris and Madrid: not only places to meet up with friends, but places where you can order one coffee and sit for hours, reading a newspaper or a book, and not be disturbed. Cafes are Buenos Aires's living room, and my favorite classic living room is Bar Montecarlo (corner of Paraguay and Ravignani). The place--along with mozo extraordinaire Juan Antonio Moyá (above)--didn't make it onto the top 10 list, but did make it into the accompanying photo gallery