Postcards from Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina: La Biela, restaurant in La Recoleta, Buenos Aires

On September 1st (still winter in Argentina) we could not resist joining the throng of locals and tourists enjoying good food while seated outside in the shade of a 200+ year old tree. Typically, menus have one price for customers seated inside (almost none, the temperature was in the low-mid 70s) and rather higher prices for those seated outside. Food and drinks had to travel a bit before arriving at our table, which was on the outer edge and closest to the city's famous gum tree.

The restaurant had very modest origins in about 1850, being established as a general store and then adding a café soon after La Recoleta started to attract residents of modest means (the wealthy at the time preferred San Telermo). This area of the city (La Recoleta), now one of its most famous districts, is named after the barefooted Franciscan Recolato monks. Over time, the establishment grew with La Recoleta itself. Its original name, "La Viridita", was changed to Aero Bar because of its popularity with members of the nearby Argentine Civil Pilots Association.

In about 1950, the growing restaurant was renamed "La Biela" ("The Connecting Rod" Restaurant) because it had become a favourite eating/drinking establishment for racing car enthusiasts. Photos of racing cars still adorn the restaurant's expanded interior. Today, four hundred patrons can be seated inside and another 300 on the broad terrace shaded by the impressive gum tree which was apparently planted [ca] 1800. The restaurant's front dates from about 100 years ago, though the restaurant itself was remodeled in 1994. The size of this tree is impressive!

Each table has its own tin of olive oil from Argentina, along with little packs of catchup for at least some tourists from the Northern hemisphere.

What would be house plants in Vancouver can be planted outside and flourish during the winter in Buenos Aires.

I enjoyed La Biela's 'complete hamburger', made from Argentine beef--utterly juicy and delicious. It went will with Imperial beer, my favourite Argentine beer and the only one being consumed by the patrons within my field of vision.

Once you have seen enough of these love birds, take a moment to admire just a part of the gum tree's root system that is above ground. In photos, this closely resembles the Moretone Bay Fig tree which is found in Australia. I'm not a tree expert, sorry!