About Chacarita
If you're visiting Buenos Aires, here's a name to file: Chacarita. It's a residential neighbourhood in the city's centre-north, sitting just behind Palermo and a short ride from downtown. For decades it was best known to porteños for the cemetery (twin to the famous one in Recoleta) and the Federico Lacroze train station. In the last few years it's quietly become the Brooklyn of Buenos Aires — a slow gentrification with the new restaurants opening next to the old butcher shops, not on top of them.
Chacarita moves at a different cadence. The pavements are wide, the cobblestones are still where most other neighbourhoods replaced them with asphalt, and people still drag chairs out to the front step in the late afternoon. Bakeries and butchers that survived every fashion. Mechanic workshops that double as art galleries without quite stopping being mechanic workshops. New restaurants growing slowly next to lifelong pizzerias.
That's the corner we chose.
The corner
Loyola 1599, on the corner of Concepción Arenal. Wide sidewalk for outdoor tables. Two big windows that let the late-morning light in. A bar carved out for the espresso machine and the brunch lineup. A few tables inside, more outside on warm days. The room is small enough to feel cared for and big enough to host the long Saturday brunch. We open at 8am and close at 10pm, Tuesday through Sunday — the longest hours of any of our three Buenos Aires locations.
Mornings
Mornings open with espresso. We work with single-origin specialty coffee, mainly Nicaraguan from Puerto Blest, roasted for our own blend. The barista pulls the first shots while the kitchen fires up the brunch line. Avo Toast on sourdough with poached egg, freshly baked butter medialunas (the Argentine answer to the croissant), Greek yogurt with house granola, fresh-pressed orange juice. Weekend brunch runs through Saturday and Sunday and pulls a crowd from across the neighbourhood — book ahead if you're a group of four or more.
Midday
The brunch menu stays available all day if you want it. From 12pm onward, the lunch programme overlaps: salads, pressed sandwiches, the signature roasted-mushroom sandwich with caramelised peppers and parmesan, mushroom risotto, coconut-curry chicken on toasted sourdough. It's lunch for people who don't want lunch to be a forty-minute set menu. Eat at the bar in twenty minutes if you have to be somewhere; sit at the corner table with a glass of wine if you don't.
Chacarita isn't Palermo, and it chooses not to be.
Afternoon tea
When the light drops and the tables start asking for a blanket, we shift gears. The tea hour is one of the things we do best in Buenos Aires, and a moment that doesn't really exist in many of the city's specialty cafés. Loose-leaf infusions in four varieties: the house Sāntal blend (hibiscus, apple, rosehip and cinnamon), a single-origin black tea, chamomile with rose petals, and a spiced masala chai.
The patisserie is house-made every morning and earns its own visit: the cinnamon roll glazed with pumpkin brittle, the walnut sablée alfajor with dulce de leche, the carrot cake with mascarpone frosting, the banana-split loaf cake. And to close strong: New York-style cheesecake, key-lime pie, a chocolate & peanut cake on a peanut-and-date base, and the irresistible chocotorta — Argentina's most famous home-style dessert.
Tea hour lasts as long as it needs to.
Evenings: Tapas & Wine
When the neighbourhood puts on its night clothes, the menu shifts again. The tapas list: three beef empanadas with a spicy grated-tomato dip; braised-beef tacos in crisp tortillas with coriander and lime; meatballs with pesto and parmesan; hummus with paprika and toasted pita; the wild-mushroom sandwich with charred peppers; the milanesa sandwich; the chicken wrap. And, for something more substantial, the mushroom risotto.
To go with it, a small but carefully chosen wine cellar. The house Paso a Paso selection (a Malbec red, a criolla rosé, a criolla blanco), wines by the glass, vermouth, Aperol Spritz, gin & tonic, Fernet on cola, draft beer.
The detail worth knowing: 2-for-1 happy hour every day from 4pm to 8pm, on the entire wine and cocktail list.
Open until 10pm.
About the neighbourhood
Chacarita isn't Palermo, and it chooses not to be. The new gastronomy grew slowly, without displacing the old. Around our block you'll find the legendary Anchoita (one of the most respected wine-and-bistro restaurants in Buenos Aires), the Canti bistro, the artisanal bakery Naranjo, and the kind of corner pizzerias that have been there since before any of this happened.
Walking into SĀNTAL Loyola 1599 is joining that conversation. We're neighbours before we're competition.
The pre- (or post-) concert plan
Four blocks from our door is the Movistar Arena, the city's biggest concert venue (capacity 15,000). The plan is straightforward: come in an hour before your show, order a tapa and a glass of wine, and walk the four blocks to the venue without rushing. If you make it back before 10pm, we're still open to close the night more slowly than the bar inside the stadium.
For a full breakdown of which artists are playing the venue this year and how to time the pre-show, read our companion piece: the Movistar Arena 2026 schedule and the tapas bar four blocks away. And if you want a wider neighbourhood map, our local guide to cafés near Movistar Arena.
How to find us
SĀNTAL Chacarita · Loyola 1599, on the corner of Concepción Arenal. The easiest way from Palermo or Recoleta is a short Uber ride (10–15 minutes). By subway, take the B line (Línea B) to Federico Lacroze and walk five minutes. From the centre, plenty of city buses pass on Avenida Corrientes and Federico Lacroze.
Pet-friendly. Outdoor seating in good weather. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 8am to 10pm. We don't take reservations for tables of three or fewer — just walk in. For four or more, message us on WhatsApp.