El cheto o la cheta puede ser una persona que vive en una zona acomodada, que suele interesarse solamente por las cosas de marca, que frecuenta lugares “top”, etcétera. Pero tambien puede ser un restaurante caro, un bar para gente más exclusiva, un barrio más coqueto…

The cheto or the cheta could be a person who lives in a wealthy area, who is usually only interested in brand name things, who frequents “top” places, and so on. But it can also be an expensive restaurant, a bar for more discerning people, a more charming neighborhood…

You see what I did there, with a play on words for our barrio, Recoleta, and this word that, in the mouths of the street is a bit of a slur, basically snob, while in the mouths of the more well-heeled, it’s more like lux. It all depends on where your point of view is from, economically. Over the last year, a trio of spots that are sort of kind of wine bars, but not exactly, have opened up near to home, and I thought I’d be a bit of a cheto myself and sample them. And, these add on to a long time favorite, which I’ve reviewed before, Winemakers.

The first spot is a branch of the Madrid based Enrique Tomás, a “cured ham” bar. You may remember it (probably not) from my very brief mention of it when I was in Madrid a few years back. This one is located at Av. Callao 1621, and there’s another due to open in the DOT shopping center on the northern edge of the city. This is more store-like than the one in Madrid that we went to, though having only gone to one branch of several in the city (and various others located in other parts of the world), I don’t know how many are more store-like and how many are more restaurant-like. There are a few tables at the front and back of the store where you can enjoy something from their menu. Of the three places I’m approaching here, this is the only one with a real menu and where you could have a full meal. Everything, not surprisingly, is based on the various cured meats (they import from Spain, though not the entire range of what the company offers it appears) and some cheeses. They have a wine “dispenser” that holds eight bottles – four selections from here in Argentina and four from Spain – at least the day I was there.

An amuse is brought to the table once you order – here it was crispy fried bits of one of their cured hams, on toast. Nice little nibble to start. There’s too much bread in these pictures for me – I ordered a plate of one of the three hams on offer along with a sheep’s milk cheese. Both quite good on their own, I didn’t think they worked together, the cheese was pungent and overwhelmed the ham. Unbeknownst to me when ordering, the plate comes with eight more pieces of bread, topped with chopped tomato. Now, that was my morning favorite when I was in Madrid – a pan con tomate y jamón, but there, they toast the bread (not here), and the tomato mixture usually has a decent amount of olive oil, salt, and sometimes garlic. This seemed to be just chopped tomato. I tried it, but given that I had more bread coming, I just ate the ham and cheese.

They were running a special offer the day I was there – a glass of Obra Malbec Reserva 2021 from Septima in Mendoza, accompanied by a choice of any two of their bocadillos. I got one with longaniza sausage, tomato, and melted cheese, the other with asparagus, cured ham, and sun-dried tomato relish. Both good. I should have thought about the season (they should too) and realized it wouldn’t be fresh asparagus, but canned, pickled asparagus. Then again, maybe that’s intentional on their part. And a good coffee to finish up. This all comes at a price – I compared the local menu with that of the main menu in Madrid, and at least at official rate, they’re basically the same price. On the other hand, with our infamous blue rate here, they’re about half the price. Depends on how you pay for it.

 

Next up is a new branch of Bellota y Caviar. The original is strictly a small storefront over at Peña and Billinghurst here in Recoleta, but this is a much larger spot on the middle floor of the Recoleta Shopping mall, at the Junín end. They have one table in the store, a small one just outside the entrance, and then several on the mall entry platform outside. Primarily a wine shop, along with several different cured meat offerings, and, given the name, caviar. I’ve dropped in at both the original and this location, and the availability of one or another caviars is quite variable. They have, at times offered caviar imports from the Caspian, from Italy, and from Uruguay. They’re all far more expensive than I want to shell out. But they have a great wine selection, including anywhere from 6-10 open and available by the glass at any given moment – on my visit the ones available were all from Argentina, though he had a sample bottle from France he was trying to decide on, and I tasted that – we both agreed, no.

The menu here is limited to a couple of plates of either cured hams or other meats, and a couple of sandwiches. They bake the bread in-house, daily, and it’s really good. They, too, had a special offering – choice of a glass of any of the open wines with a sandwich with their mid-range of the three cured hams they offered. I went for that along with a glass of Fabre-Montmayou Cabernet Franc 2019. Very nicely, they let me taste a couple of the wines before deciding on which one I wanted for the sandwich. Again, a bit pricey, especially for a sandwich and a glass of wine, and a little disappointing that there wasn’t anything else other than the sampler plates of cured hams and the single cheese offering was a local gouda, served up with olives. But, a really good sandwich, and I’d certainly stop back in for a glass of wine.

 

Now let’s go for the lux of the lux. This place, Le Bouchon, Pacheco de Melo 2189, opened, I think, last year, just a block away from home. Every time I passed by it it looked closed, and as best I could tell, it was just a small wine shop. It just happened, earlier this week, that I saw someone going in, and thought I’d poke my head in and take a look. Turns out to be a rather large place, on three levels, with a bar upstairs, a tasting table on the entry level, and a cave with tasting tables in the basement. It’s a high end wine shop, with some of the creme de la creme of Argentine wines, but also has a rather extensive collection of imported wines, both “regular” high end, but also some of the top in the world, including things like first growth Bordeaux, DRC Burgundies, Super-Tuscans from Italy, Vega Sicilia from Spain, etc.

Food wise, they offer are a selection of cheeses and a few cured meats, plus some one-off fancier items, like foie gras, in various combinations. We got a wedge of local Morbier cheese to go with our afternoon libations. They have an extensive list of several dozen wines by the glass, either 100ml or 50ml sampler size. And we went with a couple of those – a Churchill Douro Branco from Portugal and a Susanna Balbo Rosado from Mendoza. But here’s the lux kicker. Any wine in the store that costs at least 10,000 pesos ($25 at blue rate, more or less / $50 at official rate) can be bought and served at no extra charge. But… there’s more! What if you just want to try one, but not an entire bottle? As long as you buy at least two glasses, they’ll open up any wine in the shop (over 2000 selections) – including those super premium ones. Now, I didn’t get into the exact prices, but it was made clear that you’d be paying at the very least that 10,000 pesos to do so. Given that, for example, the one wine I asked about, Petrus, is retailing for $6000 (over a quarter-million pesos) for the least expensive vintage, and up from there, I won’t be sampling any of those soon. But it’s nice to have a wine bar with some more boutique wines available nearby.

 

I’d say that all three of these spots will be on my regularly visited ones, though most likely for just a glass of wine, maybe a piece of cheese. More of an afternoon snack at any of them than a meal.