A Palermo bookstore-café of the Buenos Aires type that has no exact equivalent elsewhere — a double-height space where the upper level is bookshelves and the ground floor is marble-topped bistro tables, globe pendant lights, and black bistro chairs arranged for reading rather than conversation. Seen from the balcony above, the proportion of books to café furniture is unusual: the shelves run floor to ceiling on all visible walls, and the titles — leaning against each other in the way of a working shop rather than a curated display — include literary fiction in Spanish and English, Argentine poetry, critical theory, art books, and the regional publishers that don't appear in international listings. The coffee is café de filtro, the pastries are medialunas, and the expectation is that you will spend an hour with both. The Buenos Aires bookshop-café is an institution rather than a concept; this one is among the better examples of the type.
Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina