Kitchen ***
Service ****
setting ****
He September 21, 1884at the corner of Rivadavia and Medrano in the City of Buenos Aires, the confectionery Las Violetas. Today, almost 140 years later, and several renovations, closures and reopenings in between, its spirit remains intact. The splendor comes not only from its stained glass windows, its marble floors and its French windows, but from the people who fill the room day after day. The attendance is of all ages, nationalities, neighborhoods, and is united by a single purpose: to keep the tea ritual alive.
The classic is the María Callas, suggested for two people but three eat well. It has crumb sandwiches, ham and cheese chips, little matches, and three cakes: Balcarce, Selva Negra and chocolate mousse cake with strawberries. The
pastry is not particularly refined: there is an overabundance of cream, sugar, jellies; nuances of flavors and textures are missing, but what cannot be discussed is the freshness of the products. The breaded ones, crumb sandwiches in the lead, have better luck and, it is known, a good crumb sandwich can make us touch the sky with our hands.
Besides tea, everything happens at Las Violetas. It doesn’t close even on one day of the week, it opens at 6 in the morning and closes at 1, so you can have any of the four meals, not necessarily in order. This time of the year, for example, is perfect to go to eat their churros with hot chocolate, and nothing prevents this from not being your lunch or dinner. Of course, they also have a complete menu of typical Buenos Aires dishes, correctly executed, served by attentive waiters, “mozos” like those of before, solicitous and good advisers.
In addition to the lounge, Las Violetas has a bakery / chocolates sector where, especially on year-ends, long lines form to buy their traditional pan dulce. Its walnut pudding has a fan club, as well as its dry masses and its
fruit chocolates, all glories of the Buenos Aires tradition.
In 1984 she was recognized as “Living testimony of citizen memory“and today it is still the best way to define it.
