Peronist restaurants in Buenos Aires: 'potato' cake, nostalgia and resistance

Peronism is an Argentine invention, inexplicable to the rest of the world,” says Daniel Narezo (54 years old), the owner of the Perón Perón restaurants.

“Neither from the right nor from the left.

We are a movement that houses many currents of different positions, but we come together in a common idea: our interest in the most vulnerable.”

In his office in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo, Narezo says that he was active from a very young age and that the basic units (the party premises) were terrible: “Cold, humid, boring.”

Thus, he came up with the possibility of inventing some place for meeting and debate that would be more interesting.

In 2010, a friend told him that he had a bar that had collapsed and he proposed setting up a partisan restaurant: the dishes would have fantasy names.

For example, he decided to name the cold cuts table Pedro Eugenio, in reference to the de facto president Pedro Eugenio Aramburu, kidnapped and murdered by the Peronist guerrilla organization Montoneros.

The marketing coup was effective.

The journalist and producer Daniel Narezo is the founder and owner of three Perón Perón restaurants (two in Buenos Aires and one in Córdoba).

“For a long time, I have wanted to open one in Madrid and I am looking for investors.

I was already looking at stores in Malasaña, Chueca and Lavapiés,” he says. Mariano Herrera

“The newspapers that are enemies of Peronism dedicated a lot of articles to us to criticize us, but that helped us to let many colleagues know about our existence,” says Narezo, and he says that the idea is that in the restaurant you can enjoy “a homely meal like "what grandmothers made."

An example: ossobuco with polenta.

And, of course, the meat pie (in Argentina, potato pie): “The general's favorite.” On the other hand, he says, an atmosphere of trust is created: “The diners talk or make jokes with each other.” tables.

As we all perceive each other as colleagues, there is a pre-existing affinity: being here already implies having a lot in common.”

Its restaurants are characterized by aesthetics: murals, photos and altars make up the party's scenery.

Narezo says that from La Bodeguita del Medio, in Havana, he got the idea that people could leave a message.

Thus, greetings, wishes and political comments are read on the walls.

Meters from where someone wrote the phrase of the former Argentine president and Peronist Cristina Fernández de Kirchner: “Love conquers hate,” another wrote Perón's: “To the friend, everything;

to the enemy, nor justice.”

Between 1946 and 2023, from Juan Domingo Perón (1895-1974) to Alberto Fernández, Argentina has had six Peronist presidents, who won 10 elections.

Perón Perón's dishes have fantasy names.

The breast with crispy bacon, rosemary potatoes, arugula and onion chutney is titled “Let's put the breast on.”

It can be accompanied with a “Stalin” (Caipiroska) or a “Lula” (Caipirinha).

Mariano Herrera

Food is politics

“I don't have a themed restaurant,” clarifies Gonzalo Alderete Pagés (50 years old), former chef of Perón Perón and current owner of Santa Evita, from Salta.

“I have a political restaurant and this is a form of militancy.

The basic units were losing place and today, in moments like this in which [President Javier] Milei is tearing down the laws of Peronism, is when we most need to come together.”

At the Santa Evita there is an altar, with the photo of Eva Perón, candles, flowers and a Singer sewing machine like the ones that the first lady gave to those who asked for it.

The house dish is the empanada salteña: juicy and made in a clay oven.

“Without hesitation, I could say that it is among the best five in Argentina,” he says proudly, and lists the fish that he also cooks in that oven: mullet, croaker, sole.

Alderete Pagés thinks that the Argentine is going through a gastronomic adolescence.

“With many prejudices, he eats by imitation, by fashion.

He has limitations in sweet and sour, spicy, fermented foods.

I think it needs to be expanded more.

That's why I make dishes that challenge the palate and teach you to try flavors and contrasts: I use condiments such as cinnamon, cloves, star anise or brown sugar."

“Cooking is a political act,” he says.

“People think that he chooses what he eats: in reality, he chooses from what they offer him.

I try to get out of the hegemony of the cow, cooking buffalo or wild boar.

Thus, I sell a product associated with haute cuisine, such as game meat, at a popular price in a Peronist restaurant,” he explains.

The owner of Perón Perón says that diners talk and make jokes with those at other tables.

“As we perceive ourselves as 'comrades', there is a pre-existing affinity,” says Mariano Herrera.

Several times every night, in the Perón Perón and in the Santa Evita, the music of Los niños peronistas plays, the main march of the party (which in its beginnings was called the Peronist Party and finally the Justicialist Party).

Some customers stand up and sing loudly: “For that great Argentine / who knew how to conquer / the great mass of the people / fighting capital!”

Others smile uncomfortably or remain silent.

“At that moment,” says Pagés, “it becomes clear who is a Peronist.”

With a marker in her hand, educator Sara Penco approaches one of the walls.

She says that she lives in Piriápolis, Uruguay, and that it is the first time she has come to eat here.

She is a Peronist by conviction and family heritage.

Her father, Manuel, who died a few years ago, was a member of the Justicialista Party.

Focused on the neatness of her line, she writes: “Manolo, here we are: fulfilling our country.”

A collectible coffee

In the windows of another Peronist establishment, Un Café con Perón, a silk shirt worn by Juan Domingo Perón—founder of Peronism and three times elected president, a position he held from 1946 to 1955 and from 1973 to 1974—, playing cards and stamps with his face, letters in his own handwriting, medals, a street lamp that illuminated the Puerta de Hierro residence during his exile in Madrid, an undrinked cider from 1949 (the label reads: “Dear descamisados, Merry Christmas and New Year New”), a candle (huge and melted) used during his wake and books that were part of his library.

At the entrance, arranged on the table, a life-size statue of Perón, who smiles rigidly.

“This is not just a bar, it is a piece of Argentine history,” says Leonardo Duva, president of the cooperative that is in charge of the concession of the place.

“A café with Perón” operates next to the Juan Domingo Perón Institute.

Former Peronist officials, sympathizers and party members meet curious tourists.

Mariano Herrera

The house, located in the same block of the Federal Capital as the National Library, belonged to the Unzué palace, a symbol of the Buenos Aires aristocracy at the beginning of the 20th century.

Perón adopted it as his residence during his first two presidencies.

Declared a national historical monument, the Juan Domingo Perón Institute also operates there.

“Here we do not put on the Peronist march.

We don't need it,” says Duva smiling, and comments that in the back of the bar there is a microcinema where a documentary that tells the history of the palace is projected.

The menu is Buenos Aires cuisine: chorizo ​​steak, milanesas and, of course, the classic choripán and meat pie.

“Even though we are in the heart of Recoleta, we have popular and affordable prices,” Duva clarifies, and tells the anecdote of the old man who began to pale after eating meatloaf for dinner with two bottles of wine.

They called the ambulance.

They feared for his life.

Moments before the nurses arrived, the man called Duva, asked him not to say anything to his son and confessed: "The doctor told me not to drink alcohol... But if I die here, in Perón's house And about Evita, what problem am I going to have?”

Choripán (roasted chorizo ​​between two breads) is usually sold at demonstrations and in soccer stadiums.

It is also eaten, before meat, in roasts.

In the photograph, choripán photographed in “Un café con Perón”.Mariano Herrera

Leonardo Duva, president of the cooperative in charge of “Un café con Perón” says that the place “is not a bar: it is a piece of Argentine history.”

The presidential residence functioned there until 1955.Mariano Herrera

A restaurant without ideology

The building that houses the Evita Museum was built in 1923, as a small French-style hotel.

Years later it was renovated and, in 1948, the Eva Perón Social Assistance Foundation bought it and turned it into a “transit home.”

There they received women with health, housing or work problems.

Most stayed for a week while social workers helped them solve their problems.

The museum was inaugurated in 2002. Distributed in 13 rooms, there are gala dresses of the first lady, hats, her civic notebook (number 1), photos, publications and the letters that Perón sent her when he was imprisoned on Martín García Island. and in which he promised her marriage when he was released.

However, when asked if the museum restaurant is Peronist, the manager hesitates and seems uncomfortable.

He is silent for a moment.

“The neighborhood is not Peronist,” he says, and points to Juan María Gutiérrez Street, in the heart of Palermo.

“Due to the area and the prices, I would say that it is not part of the ideals of Peronism: it is more oriented toward tourism.”

Then he explains that the menu is Italian-Portuguese: there are pastas, meats, fish.

On the walls, paintings of the face of Eva Perón (1919-1952) by different Argentine artists, which belong to the museum.

“The only thing that could be said to be partisan is the shield that is out there.”

He points to a shield-shaped work that, on the front, has four cog wheels.

A conceptual work, without acronyms or anything that refers to Peronism.

Alberto “Tito” Mansur and Jorge Carlos Berbere Delgado met in 1985 at the hearings of the Military Junta Trial.

Mansur was the secretary of legal affairs of the Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (Conadep).

For almost 40 years, once a month, they get together to chat and discuss politics at “A café with Perón.”

Mariano Herrera

Grilled militancy

The NK Ateneo waiter, Juan Bernhard, does not look the 64 years old he claims to be.

He wears a black shirt and pants and, at the level of his heart, wears a pin with the shield of the Justicialista Party.

“I don't wear this to suck the owner's socks,” he clarifies.

“Peronism is in my blood.

My house was a militant bastion,” he says, meters from a table on which there is a statue of Néstor Kirchner (1950-2010), arms crossed, expression reflective.

On the walls, little-known photos of the former president that the owner of the place, Fernando Oyarzo, obtained through his uncle Rudy Ulloa, Kirchner's former driver and friend.

Bernhard, who has worked at the restaurant since it opened three years ago, says that during the presidential campaign, open meetings were held to discuss political actions.

The specialty of the house is the grill and the distinctive touch, the Patagonian lamb, Kirchner's favorite dish.

There are also pastas, fish, minutes.

“I have argued with colleagues who speak badly of Evita because of the photo she is there,” he says, and points to an image of Eva Duarte next to Francisco Franco.

“With clients, no.

But whoever comes with bad vibes, I accompany him to the door.”

And he explains: “If you stay to eat, keep your mouth shut and be respectful.

If not, go somewhere else.”

The owner of Santa Evita, Gonzalo Alderete Pagés, says that in Argentina cooking was always done looking outward: “The most renowned chefs did not pay attention to our roots and our gastronomy.”Mariano Herrera

Florencia Barrientos Paz, Gonzalo Alderete Pagés' partner, is in charge of preparing the desserts at Santa Evita.

Pumpkin in syrup, made with quicklime so that the edges remain rigid, is her specialty.

Mariano Herrera

Flavors from another era

Nicolás Quirno Costa defines himself as nostalgic.

Perhaps that is why he decided that the La Capitana restaurant, which opened in July 2022, would refer to Argentina in the 1940s and 1950s: the first Peronism.

To decorate it, he had to visit several antique shops.

The food is made up of dishes from the period: Neapolitan Milanese, Creole empanadas.

“We don't want to innovate.

We look for the flavors of those years,” he says, and says that the music that plays in the establishment is tango (Nelly Omar, Tita Merello, Carlos Gardel), bolero, jazz and foxtrot.

For Quirno Costa, Peronism is a philosophy that seeks to understand life, trying to feel what others are going through.

“Knowing that one is not fulfilled if others are not fulfilled,” he says.

“Here we receive a very varied audience.

But unlike other restaurants, we don't have an anti-gorilla vision.

Obviously, those who hate us and think that Peronism is the worst thing about Argentina are going to feel it like a crack, because the march is also sung here,” he explains.

“But those who are anti-Peronists, we still serve them well.

We try to get him to join the party.

We tell him: 'Did you see that, in the end, our classmates weren't so bad?'

By touring the rooms of the Evita Museum, the visitor can learn about the story of Eva Duarte: her childhood, her youth, her fight for women's civic rights, social work, renunciation and her death.Mariano Herrera

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