Neighborhood Cafés...
Any porteño will state that there is a café on every corner of Buenos Aires. Although this is impossible, cafés fulfil a very important role on the everyday life of the city. They are more like a meeting place or a get-away-from-it-all place. Sometimes they are called bares, but please don't think of them as typical North American style bars (dark, crowded, neon lights, beer drinking). Nor they serve a variety of elaborated meals. Cafés are equally suitable morning, day or night, they are often well lit. The idea is to find a nice table by a window, sip a cup of coffee in a nice demitasse (no paper or plastic cups), maybe munch one or two medialunas (croissants) and watch life go by; or just get together with friends, order a few beers and talk away your problems or tell everyday life stories or watch a fútbol match. Now, where are the best cafes? Many will probably suggest you some nice places downtown such as the famous Café Tortoni or Café La Paz or La Biela or the ones in the barrio de San Telmo, the bohemian district. They are all very good, but they are mostly for tourists. Don't get me wrong, porteños are welcome and they do visit them every now and then, but they usually don't hang out there. So here is a subjective list of neighborhood cafés in Buenos Aires sorted by name, address and neighborhood: Bar Seddon - Defensa 695 - San Telmo; Café Argos - Federico Lacroze 3499 - Colegiales; Café Margot - Boedo 857 - Boedo; Café El Coleccionista - Rivadavia 4929 - Caballito; Café Dante - Boedo 745 - Boedo; Bar Aragón - Juan B. Alberdi 4899 - Villa Luro; Bar Británico - Brasil 399 - San Telmo; Bar Oviedo - Lisandro de la Torre 2407 - Mataderos; Cafe de Garcia - Sanabria 3302 - Villa Devoto. With the exception of the Bar Británico, these places are far from the tourist circuit, but all of them are in perfectly safe areas and no more than 30 minutes on average by cab from downtown. Don't be afraid to try them. In all cases, these off the beaten path cafés are guaranteed to make you feel like a local. There is a very complete list of historic bars and cafés on the following website, some are true hidden gems, some are not...
http://www.buenosaires.gov.ar/areas/turismo/actividades/index.php?nombre=&idbarrio=0&info=bares&menu_id=74&buscar=1&bot_buscar.x=33&bot_buscar.y=4