San Telmo Bars & Nightlife

Café Rivas serves food and drinks all day in a space about as charming as they come (that happens to be located on one of the more picturesque, cobbled corners of the city). Dining options are of the classically Argentinian variety (steaks, breaded pork cutlets), and the weekend brunch is excellent but, really this is a spot to sit at the bar with a glass of full-bodied wine or creamy coffee and unwind—ideally after a few hours spent browsing the San Telmo flea market.

Bar Plaza Dorrego is one of those super-evocative, classic, old-school spots with the requisite checkered floor, suited-up waiters, and dusty wine bottles. The old wood bar is covered in the scrawled etchings of customers past and present, and some of the waiters have been working the floor for over two decades. Take a seat at the bar and order a few drinks (teetotalers try their famous submarino—hot milk with a little added chocolate), and traditional Argentine snacks to the sound of tango music for the quintessential BA evening.