On a dusky, late summer evening, a crowd of close to a thousand people mobbed the lawn in front of the Palermo Planetarium to practice one of romance’s finest inventions—the slow dance. With a half moon floating appropriately over the Planetarium, the crowd of teens, 20 and 30-somethings and older couples gathered in the early twilight, awaiting the Que Vuelvan los Lentos, or the return of the slow dances, as the event was named.
With a face full of pizza, awkwardly holding a beer in a plastic cup, surrounded by strangers, it’s hard to predict what to expect. You’ve arrived at a park in Palermo, signed in, chatted a bit, and loaded yourself with the much-needed sustenance for the night of drinking ahead. “How does this work? Who are these people? And am I going to have fun?” you ask yourself. Two hours later, as you give a group cheer to the bartender and slam down a neon-blue shot with 20 people; it all begins to make sense. You are on a pub crawl.
It’s Thursday night and you are pining for the weekend but just can’t wait any longer to unwind a bit early…Congo, the very unassuming and mysteriously sexy bar/lounge located in the ever-so-posh Palermo Viejo neighborhood is where it’s at. It’s a great place to catch an after-work drink with friends, mingle with the bustling population of slightly pretentious, good-looking, and flirtatious porteños, or to just chill after a long day and get lost in the undulating rhythm of the music as the energetic and friendly vibe takes you in.
A parrilla might seem an unlikely place to head for vegetarian options, but La Escondida in Palermo Viejo hides a fabulous self-serve vegetarian meal – in the form of a salad bar. Yes, a salad bar. I never imagined that I would recommend a salad bar. When I think salad bar, I think hospital cafeteria. This salad bar, however, is totally different. This salad bar had roasted eggplant, roasted potatoes, bitter micro-greens, leaf lettuce, radicchio, curly endive, flageolet beans, chickpeas, lentils, pickled vegetables, and – get this – candied shaved fennel, yummmmm! And there was more.
Buenos Aires is a city that prides itself on its Italian heritage- they play futbol with flair, have twelve different pasta sauces on every menu, and they undoubtedly have the best gelato this side of the Atlantic.
