| | Founded in 1858, the Tortoni Coffee bar is the oldest of Argentina. Between its covered with boards walls, next to its tables of oak and green marble, they seated Alfonsina Storni, Benito Quinquela Martin, Carlos Gardel, Luigi Pirandello, Federico Garcia Lorca and Arturo Rubinstein among other artists.
The Tortoni is the paradigm of the Buenosairean coffee bar, but little it is known of its origins. Hardly a French immigrant of family name Touan decided to inaugurate it by the end of 1858, he borrowed the name from one establishment of Boulevard des Italiens, in which the elite of the Parisian culture of century XIX used to have meetings.
By the end of the century, the bar was acquired by another french: Don Celestino Curutchet, to who poet Beyond Iragorri described like… "the typical french wise old man….". Slight of body and fort of spirit, he used the classic extended knob, the most alive eyes and used an Arab cap of black silk, almost a comic strip personage that added another peculiar accent to the appearance of the place.
The local once was frequented by a group of painters, writers, journalists and musicians who formed the Grouping of People of Arts and Letters, led by Benito Quinquela Martin. In May of 1926 they form the Rock, and they request to Don Celestino Curutchet, that it lets them to use the warehouse of the subsoil. The owner accepted enchanted, because according to his words… "Artists spend too little, but they make the coffee famous".
Image: Wikipedia website
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