Bar Sur

can Bar Sur be a 'bar notable'? on a personal note, Bar Sur can lay claim to notable status, since it was the only bar I didn't enter on the circuit and the only one photographed from the outside. why? because you can't enter the establishment without paying a cover charge to watch a tango show. thus, you're either forced into paying to watch from the balcony or paying to have a meal and watch from the ground floor. either way, it's a stiff price for a Quilmes.

how can 'bar notables', a supposedly historic set of drinking establishments, include places that either require you to eat (or, indeed, watch tango)? a bar is a drinking establishment, it is a place to gather, to read, to imbibe to your heart's content and not a place to be force fed.

but my angst at Bar Sur - expressed to a very patient waiter outside on the pavement - is merely a recognition that I want the 'bar notable' tag to be something it isn't. I want the history but I don't want the marketing. more than that, however, I discovered on further investigation that I was being naive. in the history section of the bar's website the founder, Ricardo Montesino, explains how he decided to create Bar Sur:

'por aquel entonces con un grupo de amigos soñábamos con hacer un club privado para congregar a más amigos..., recuerdo que le comenté a mi madre: "voy a poner un lugar al que va a venir a conocer gente de todas partes del mundo…", pensé en que ese lugar podría estar en San Telmo, porque me pareció el centro cívico… [...] Cuando vi esa esquina, construida en el año 1910, quedé encantado…, no sólo por su estilo arquitectónico, sino también, porque había que pegar la vuelta por la cortadita para llegar, lo cual le daba ese encanto especial que tiene lo escondido…, lo privado…, entonces invité a mis amigos y más tarde a mis hermanos a participar en el proyecto.'

['At the time a group of friends and myself dreamed of forming a private club where we could meet and include even more friends. I remember telling my mother. "I'm going to open a spot where people from all over the world will want to visit." I thought that place would be in San Telmo, as I believed it was a civic center... [...] Upon seeing that spot on the corner, built in 1910, I was awed not only by its architecture but by the shortcuts you had to take in order to reach it, a feature which gave it a special charm, a feeling of hiding and privacy. It was then that I invited friends and brothers to take part in the project.']

for all his talk of San Telmo as a civic centre, Montesino always wanted Bar Sur to be a private club on a private, tucked-away corner. standing on the pavement outside, I was in fact being confronted with the very history I'd thought was being denied me...