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Buenos Aires Esquina Carlos Gardel The city's premier tango house   Click here to go to Buenos Aires Gateway

HISTORY OF CARLOS GARDEL AND TANGO, in the words of the tango house itself:

By the end of the XIXth. century, when in Buenos Aires the tango started to spread and melt with the soul of the folk, mixing slowly with the essence of the native and immigrant people, and when the village pretended to transform -disorderly- into a city, one of its most picturesque quarters was "El Abasto", where labor was in the air during the day, and tango pervaded the night. While slowly growing around the supplying market after which the quarter took its name (in Spanish, abastecer means to supply), "El Abasto" neighborhood witnessed the rise of an indisputable popular idol: Carlos Gardel.

The "Morocho del Abasto" (the "Abasto" brown-haired), as he was called, grew and shaped in that unique, and unusual environment. According to the memories, it is said that when "Carlitos" managed to sneak away from his custodians at the (Saint) Pious the Xth School, called by a mysterious "magnet", he used to wander by the narrow and noisy streets of the neighborhood, among workers, rascals and scoundrels that tried to get their daily "opportunities", and among dealers that were piling up poultry cages and vegetables crates.

This special environment nourished Gardel’s outstanding personality, the one that rapidly leaded him both to success and to achieve the dimension of an indisputable tango icon.

At a cul-de-sac corner -now renamed "Carlos Gardel" as a way of paying tribute to him, where today is the statue that immortalize him, there was, by then, a restaurant in which the picturesque people of the market used to gather: the "Chanta Cuatro". That restaurant was the mute witness of a unique story. There, "Carlitos" Gardel used to gather with his friends and mates for dinning, staying up late, singing, or...simply waiting for the following day sunrise. By that time, he started to develop his outstanding profile as a folkish singer, mixing different popular songs of the time (waltzes, popular airs, tunes and melodies).

"Chanta Cuatro" opened its doors in 1893, as a two-floor restaurant and hotel. Among its premises, there was a "bochas" alley, a traditional game at that time, that originated the peculiar name of the place.

Today, more than 100 years later, this same story, magically, comes back. "Esquina Carlos Gardel", located at the very same place where "Chanta Cuatro" once was, joins these two authentic stories and offers an inimitable -and insurmountable- alternative regarding Tango-restaurants.

A superb cuisine, an exquisitely decorated -Art Nouveau style- ambience, that exactly re-creates the sophistication of the most luxurious old-time dining rooms, last-generation technology equipment, top level artistic proposal, and a mystical atmosphere that will lead you to experiment an unforgettable night.

It couldn’t be otherwise…yet the very same Carlos Gardel waits for you at the door…!!!