In the middle of the 1950s, 12 friends obsessed by the competitive fury of stamp acquisition and study began gathering at a bar in Caballito to exchange, compare collections and drink much-needed cups of strong coffee on weekends. A few of the men sold their prized stamps in the Rivadavia park across the street, but all shared a common interest in amassing collections. As a result, naming the bar after the group who founded Argentina’s Asociación Filatélica Temática seemed only natural.
Sadly, it’s stampless nowadays but Café el Coleccionista is still a place to go with friends. Packed with as many wooden chairs and tables as can fit, the green-aproned waiters lean nonchalantly against the small bar for lack of any other space to loiter as a mainly Argentine crowd drinks tiny cups of espresso.
The menu includes a wide selection of teas, sandwiches, desserts, hamburgers and over 50 cocktails. The Hamburguesa Gran Coleccionista is the grossly gargantuan star of the menu, and is served on two heaping halves of flatbread with lettuce, tomato, olives, cheese, egg with more beef than you can shake a cattle prod at.
The prices are fairly typical, giant hamburgers more than a little tasteless and the waiters might be charming and friendly if only they’d quit ignoring you. One liter of Heineken beer runs an average $18 pesos, but the snack tray accompanying the bottle is something of a glossy disappointment considering it looks like it should be tasty. The silver tray includes various types of meat bi-product, hard crisps and obligatory old peanuts.
As for the mini bar in the back corner, it hosts the usual lineup of poisons but the inattentiveness of the staff makes quantum physics easier than getting a cocktail.
While the café doesn’t exude any vibe of stamp fanatics huddling in corners with prized collections, it does provide a wide range of chow and desert as well as a nice outdoor seat across from the park. So if you find yourself in Caballito with nothing to do and hours to burn, the café is definitely a place for a relaxing cup of coffee where you will be left in peace whether you like it or not.
And it’s also just one block from the Acoyte stop on the subte A line at Rivadavia 4929.