In times where gastronomic openings of all kinds and color proliferate, many with unpronounceable dishes and letters designed for Instagram, there is a trend that steps strongly by contrast: return to the roots. More precisely, go to clubs. To those neighborhood institutions that knew how to be a point of Social meeting, training court, party hall and, above all, temple of homemade kitchen. Because when everything seems pretentious -and the pocket squeezes -, the palate finds a gastronomic shelter in rich, abundant and served in places where you still eat like home, those with shield, history and rubber tablecloth.
Tradition and renewal
In tune with that revaluation, Elgourmet premiere “Club cuisine “a series that pays tribute to these restaurants born in the heart of social and sports institutions throughout the country. With stories that combine recipes, endearing characters and the pulse of each neighborhood, the program intends to show that the authentic still has an incomparable flavor.
One of the scenarios inaugurating this series is Club Atlético Palermo, an institution with more than 100 years of history in the heart of the neighborhoodfounded in 1914 and known for having been one of the founding clubs of the Argentine Football Association. On its first floor the Palermo canteen works, a restaurant that opens on Tuesday to Sundays and that keeps the Buenos Aires gastronomic tradition alive: Milanesas with potatoes, homemade pastes, grilled meats, flan with sweet and wines served in penguin. With paper tablecloth, photos on the walls and young men who know the guests by name, the space became a meeting point for historical partners, neighbors of the neighborhood and curious tourists.
“The bohemians ”, a few meters from the Atlanta courtit is an icon of the Villa Crespo neighborhood, which is always full to the top. The proximity of the Movistar Arena stadium contributes to its success and also the variety of dishes and the large size of its portions, ideal to put together a table of friends and share. In their menu the milanesas, the tortillas and the pasta stand out. Flan with dulce de leche is a classic that no diner should miss. The owners recommend arriving very early because no reservations are made. Tuesday to Sunday opens at noon the night.
Another outstanding stop on this emotional map is Montañeses Restaurant, who has been working within the Montañés center for 35 yearsan institution founded in 1923 in the Collegiate neighborhood. Founded by the Calandra family and today in charge of its second generation, the restaurant combines Spanish roots with a subtle Buenos Aires touch, in a proposal that seeks, as Stephan and Guido Calandra explain, a duo in charge, “go a little further, both in the kitchen and in the environment, always maintaining the warm and close spirit that characterizes the still lifes.” His clientele is as diverse as faithful: couples, groups of friends, whole families who find in this corner of the city a generous table, good wine and that balance just between tradition and renewal.
Kitchen with memory
On the border between Villa Urquiza and Parque Chas, another neighborhood club found a new way to beat again. It is about Saber Club, founded in 1926 And reopened as vermotile for two neighbors who decided to recover not only the building, but also its spirit. “Sometimes people enter with their parents thinking that they will discover a new restaurant, but they get excited because they remember the club when they were young,” they say.
It is that in addition to the palate, memory is activated. Today this space resignifies that legacy with a current proposal: artisanal vermou, abundant tapas and a letter designed to share. Spanish potato tortilla, artisanal black pudding croquettes, smoked alcauciles in QuebrachoFainá, freshly cut raw ham, Brie Cordoba cheese, homemade hummus, stuffed olives and asparagus with molten cheese are just some of the options. And soon the proposal will expand to the corner of Llerena and Ávalos, where they will open Go know, A warehouse that will offer everything the club has, but in format to carry.
Towards Devoto, and on the site of Kimberley Athletic Clubbut with its own and open to all audiences, the Kimberley Bodegón proposes a clear formula: short letter, fresh subjects and the pissed coal grill plus with firewood. Open for dinner from Tuesday to Friday, add lunch and dinner on Saturdays and lunch on Sundays. The base is a classic kitchen of Bodegón, but it coexists with the side of Steakhouse from where fair portions of the Eye de Bife, chorizo dike, entrails, chinchulines and gizzard, among others, always ready (not “marked”) come out.
Among the star dishes, the “milanga” of a narrow steak with bone empanada in homemade bread and Panko, served with carbonara style spaghetti crowned with egg, and the Kac ñoquis in aluminum papillote with homemade tuco, cream, ham, provolone, green and egg, more tostón of spicy bread. “Bodegones cuisine was always and always will be … The still life does not fail, because there is food for everyone, ”says Walter García Díaz, at the head of the restaurant since 2016.
At a time where everything seems ephemeral, clubs resist. With their inherited recipes, their shared tables and its heat in the neighborhood, remember that sometimes it is not necessary to innovate, but to return to what always worked: eat well, without turns, and with the warmth to make feel at home.
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