Buenos Aires – Hang around this city long enough and someone is sure to recommend El Cuartito, Talcahuano 937, in the Centro area, as ONE OF THE, if not THE, best pizza places in town. One local wag who pops up on blogs and various websites every now and again spent four paragraphs on one of them recently waxing poetic about the place and pizza in Argentina in general – dismissing all North American pizza as Pizza Hut and glossing over pizzas in Italy as if they were an afterthought in deference to its Argentine creators…
I’ve avoided the place like the plague. Oh, I’ve walked past it. I’ve looked in. I’ve looked at the menu. And something about it screamed “come here oh ye tourist of no knowledge and believe the hype.” I really need to learn to trust my instincts. I guess I do, in general, I mean, I didn’t eat there for nearly six months. But yesterday for lunch I had to be nearby to it, and decided I could take a chance. The room is a lot of dark wood and tile, the walls are papered with posters of various boxing matches, mostly from the U.S., sprinkled with a few other sporting events. A giant sign proclaims having served “good pizza” since 1934. The place is reasonably clean. Service is friendly and efficient. The prices are low. I tried a couple of empanadas which were passable ground beef, potato, egg, and olive versions, one baked, the other fried. Ground beef, not chopped or cut steak. I ordered a small pizza mixta, a specialty of the house – half plain mozzarella, half anchovy. The crust is fine, if a little bland. The tomato sauce is fresh, and clearly made from chopped tomatoes and garlic. And nothing else. There’s not another hint of spice or seasoning or herbs. The mozzarella, thankfully gracing only half of the pie is as oily as the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez.
Come on folks, there’s so much better pizza in this city that this is inexcusable. If this place once served exceptional pizza, that day has clearly passed.
Staying in the Italian theme I decided to try a neighborhood Italian place I’ve passed several times. A couple of local friends have recommended it as decent if not exceptional Italian food, and I’ll go with that in the final analysis. Celetto, at Uriburu 1276 in Barrio Norte (and they have two other locations in the city) is a hodgepodge of Italian menu items. There are representative dishes from probably every major culinary region of Italy on a somewhat meandering four page menu. They proudly proclaim that they use DeCecco pastas for their dried pastas, one of my favorites, so that’s a good start. The room is simple, with about a dozen tables and a large display counter. It’s the kind of place that makes you feel comfortable to just sit in. That was further enhanced by the delivery, while I was perusing the menu, of a small bruschetta of melted fontina cheese and tomato accompanied by a little tumbler of peach juice. Nice combination! This was quickly followed by a basket of decent breads – all good signs. [This place has closed, though the other two locations remain open.]
I decided to start my dinner with a panzanella, a classic of Tuscan cuisine, a bread, tomato, and onion soup/salad that is one of my favorites. I guess I should have read the menu carefully, as, when I looked at it later, I saw that it described in detail what I was getting. Not a lovely dish of bread soaked in the juices of fresh tomatoes and olive oil, a bit of chopped onion, a touch of salt and pepper, and we devour hungrily. Instead, a large bowl of arugula topped with roasted red bell peppers, anchovies, olives, capers, tomatoes, and what I can best guess was some sort of version of creamy Italian dressing. Now, mind you, it was a good salad. It just bears no relationship to panzanella.
I was in the mood for pasta, and I asked my waiter what his personal favorite was. It’s one of my favorite things to do, as I like to see their approach – I can usually tell from the way they respond if they’re just trying to sell something, if they’re passionate about food, or if they couldn’t care less. My waiter sort of hemmed and hawed and shifted from foot to foot and then meekly offered that maybe the risotto would be a good choice. I replied I’d rather have a pasta, and he blinked once or twice and suggested “maybe the first one on the menu.” I asked him if he’d ever tried any of them and he admitted that he hadn’t. I know I’m in a different culture, but I’ve found this to be common here. It’s Restaurant 101 back in the U.S., but not in Argentina. Note to restaurant owners here – you’d be amazed how much more productive your staff will be if you actually let them try the food.
Two of the items on the menu had, beyond descriptions of their ingredients, single word superlatives. One said exquisito, the other imperdible. The latter means “safety pin.” I can only hope that there’s some sort of colloquial usage that I’ve been unable to determine. Or maybe they mean it’s a safe choice. I don’t know, but exquisite sounded better and I ordered the penne with ossobuco and tomato sauce. A decent sized portion, and as my friends had said, good but not exceptional. The pasta was slightly overcooked, but the tomato sauce was fresh and tasty. The “ossobuco” was a little misleading – they’d most likely used the meat that is used for ossobuco, but it clearly wasn’t slow braised and tender.
Dessert fared better than the first two courses. I ordered the chocolate torte and was pleasantly surprised to get something that was plated quite nicely and also beyond just “good.” Two nice sized rectangles of flourless bittersweet chocolate torte with roasted chestnuts, caramel sauce, and an interesting sesame brittle on top and slipped in between the pieces. It was delicious, and if I wasn’t such a good note taker probably would have made me forget all about the oddity of my salad.
Celetto also offers a decent winelist, including half a dozen selections by the glass. A glass of Bodega el Plumerillo Clasico Malbec 2003 showed soft, red plum flavors, was on the easy drinking side, and essentially, just perfect for a simple Italian dinner. It confirmed my impressions of the wine from the Malbec Experience back in October.
Finally, I’m going to just pat myself on the back for being such a good boyfriend. Due to a variety of reasons, I have to be back in New York later this week and for the following two weeks, which means missing the holidays with Henry. I know he’s been a bit sad about it. He was out for the day yesterday, so in between my various culinary adventures I found a small Christmas tree, got it all decorated, and put a bunch of regalitos underneath it for him. He was completely surprised and cheered up and immediately wanted to pose with his new tree.
I have to tentatively apologize to the wag I mentioned above, thankfully, I didn’t mention his name! On rereading his post, and some of the other recommendations I’ve received, it seems there is some confusion between the restaurant I was not fond of, El Cuartito, and the one that folks really rave about, Las Cuartetas. So, now I have another place to go try!
[…] Okay, on to the apology, of sorts. A few weeks ago I reviewed El Cuartito, an old-fashioned pizza parlor that numerous folk have recommended to me directly or on various chat boards. I dismissed their opinions, gave my own, and basically trashed the place. I stand by the review. The apology comes in that it seems that many of the folk were actually thinking of (and a couple actually referred correctly to) an entirely different place called Las Cuartetas, Corrientes 838, near the Obelisk. Confusion seems to reign rampant between the two, with descriptions of parts of one mixed with parts of the other. Let me be quite clear here. For anyone who was referring to Las Cuartetas, which I’m about to describe, I apologize for trashing your opinion. The pizza is fantastic. The best I’ve had in Buenos Aires to date. For anyone who was referring to El Cuartito, you’re very simply eating at the wrong place. […]
I’ve been told by more than one person that I am just plain wrong about this place. Not by everyone – many folks have told me that they think El Cuartito used to be quite good but has gone downhill in the last few years – since the “crash” and the influx of tourism (and tourists do seem to be a mainstay of the crowd) – I can’t speak to that, I never tried it “back in the ’90s” or anytime before that (it’s been there since 1934). But, I’m willing to accept that I might have had one pizza that was a bit off, or perhaps I was having a bad day. So I went back and tried something different – their “pizza atómica” – roasted peppers, sausage, olives, mozzarella and a bit of tabasco (which doesn’t actually come on the pizza, the waiter brings a bottle and starts splashing it atop the pizza until you say to stop).
I stand by my original assessment. The crust is simply bland, it’s as if they don’t use salt in the dough. The tomato sauce likewise – had it not been for the tabasco and the sausage, this pizza would have been devoid of flavor. And the mozzarella an abomination to the cheese world – I think I underestimated the quantity of oil that flows off of it in my original posting. This time, with the whole pie covered by cheese, the oil was literally running off the wooden board it was served on and puddling on the table. I also ordered a slice of faina – it arrived refrigerator cold and soggy – inedible.
The service is still friendly and efficient, the room is still kind of cool with all the posters and photos of boxers and wrestlers and other sports memorabilia. But that’s not enough to get me to go back again.
[…] a mildly dingy white tiled corner pizza shop with rickety tables. Got the picture? It’s El Cuartito all over again… a place that was maybe once really good, or maybe not, but somehow has become […]
FYI, “imperdible” literally means “un-loseable” or “unmissable”–in effect, “not to be missed.” Thanks for the fun blog! I’m newly arrived in BA and can’t wait to check out your empanada and gelato suggestions… 🙂
Jess, in Spanish it means “safety pin” – in English it means “indestructible” or “impregnable”. It also has a definition in Spanish as “something which cannot be lost”, however, used in conjunction with the idea that something has been afixed to something else (as in, with a safety pin or clasp), as opposed to the English idea of unloseable that might refer to a competition. I can’t find any rerefence that it could be used to mean “unmissable”. Perhaps, as I suggested, it’s a colloquial, or street slang usage (and I have occasionally seen it in advertising) – and I did check it out after writing the post with several local friends, all agreed that they’d understand it to mean something like “a safe choice”, but that it’s an odd usage of the word. Then again, advertising/public relations folk have a tendency to do that, yes?
[…] or had an off-night myself. It happens. And so, I have at times gone back to re-review one place or another – sometimes to arrive at the same conclusion, and sometimes not. Here, I present a trio that […]
Very old post, very old comments, but passing by I can’t help but add my bit to the translation discussion: “imperdible” does mean “unmissable” in the context of that menu (and it can be used as meaning that in any context).
It is also used as “safety pin” though more infrequently so now (“alfiler de gancho” is more common).
The double meaning comes from the double meaning of “perder” which is both to lose and to miss (as in “to miss a train”). But the use of “imperdible” as “unmissable” is by far the commonest.
I guess maybe at some point when safety-pins were a relatively new thing they were labeled “imperdibles” as they would be hard to lose?
Yes, over time I’ve come to see it more and more. It does, still seem to be a local colloquial use. For example, Henry was as mystified by the usage as I was, and he grew up speaking Spanish in Peru. At the time, he said he could understand what they were trying to say, like some of my other local friends at the time, but that it just seemed a very odd word to use. These days I see it more and more – even my vegetable supplier uses it their pricelist to note things they think are at the peak of freshness!
[…] taken a cue from their other one being the over-hyped, yet near and dear to the porteño heart, El Cuartito, which for me is inexcusably bad. Decent service, cute place, probably a nice spot to drop in for a […]
[…] Cuartito, Talcahuano 937, Retiro – I first reviewed this place way back in 2005. I wasn’t impressed. I know it’s a porteño icon of the pizza world. […]