Back in England the city of Brighton has a well-deserved reputation as the most ‘European’ city in the country, a place where you’re as likely to find arty types sipping espressos in cute cafés as you are people knocking back pints of Stella Artois in dingy back-alley pubs. The style-conscious denizens of the south coast resort would therefore find themselves well at home in the Buenos Aires namesake ‘The New Brighton’, an immaculately preserved and decorated bar notable that blows you away just looking at it.
Situated a stones-throw from the hustle and bustle of Florida and Corrientes, you would be forgiven for overlooking the bar amongst the gaudy fast-food restaurants, bureaux de change and hawkers of tacky tourist memorabilia that are synonymous with this stretch of the city. The Victorian-style building that houses it used to be a shop, and lay derelict for some time until it was rescued and restored as an upmarket bar/restaurant. The building appears somewhat anonymous from the outside, and it is only by entering that one can fully appreciate the beauty of the bar.
And what beauty! From the antique posters of licors and beers that line the walls, and the champagne flutes that hang from the ceilings, even to the immaculately pressed shirts and waistcoats of the waiting staff, everything in the place screams at you “class”. First-timers would be forgiven for being intimidated by such surroundings, and that you would require shirt and tails merely to cross the threshold.
Happily this is not the case. When we visited we were by no means dressed to the sartorial standards of the waiting staff, but nevertheless staff were tirelessly friendly attentive and rapid in their service- our order was ready to be taken as soon as we’d sat down, and arrived minutes after the waiter left our side. The overall atmosphere was also surprisingly relaxed, with soft jazz music playing in the background and a mostly male clientele passing a few hours after work chatting and putting the world to rights. Tourists and travellers need not fear this bar.
The bar offers all the usual staples of a Buenos Aires café- coffees, facturas, tostados and other light bites to get you through a busy morning or line the stomach before a late dinner. I ordered a café con leche with three medialunas, while my companion went for a café calypso, a special coffee on their menu which boasted cream, tia maria, cinnamon. A special treat was four dainty chocolates given to accompany our choices, which were a lovely surprise.
The calypso coffee was a real treat, rich and refreshing at the same time with the taste of what can only be described as the “liquid equivalent of tiramisu”- not a bad thing in any way. The medialunas on the other hand were a little disappointing; obviously having been prepared that morning by the afternoon they were rather dry and stale, but nonetheless with a nice flavour. The prices also were reasonable for such an upmarket establishment- A regular coffee will set you back $8, con leche with medialunas $15 and for a special coffee $18- well worth it!
Despite the name The New Brighton is not immediately reminiscent of its English namesake – there is no “Brighton Rock” on sale for a start, and no pictures evoking the Sussex coastline hanging off the walls. But once you recover from this slight disappointment, you will find a place well-worthy of satisfying your daily hit of caffeine in Buenos Aires.
The New Brighton can be found at Sarmiento 645, one block from Florida subte (Line B). There is also a restaurant on site which serves hot meals until late, and an extensive wine selection.