Something Old

Paola Smith thought she would be at Buenos Aires Café a couple of months while in between architecture jobs – that was almost ten years ago. She had designed the logo for the original location on Oltorf while doing her architecture internship in Barcelona. While she grew up in kitchens, she never imagined herself running a restaurant, let alone stirring cocktails behind the bar, pulling shifts on the line in the kitchen, or designing menus, all of which are now day-to-day duties in her role as manager of the bright blue café on East 6th.

Ask anyone to describe East Austin, and you will inevitably hear descriptions, like changing, different, and new. All are accurate; though, others who’ve been around a while might say historic, traditional, or established. Like East Austin, Buenos Aires Café Este must balance staying true to traditional Argentine cuisine while remaining fresh and attractive to diners with evolving tastes and ever-increasing expectations.

The restaurant’s nearly 10 year-old 6th Street location (time-honored for this part of town) now pre-dates much of the construction that carries on further east, but the menu, attitude, and seasonal ingredients are as fresh and innovate as any. Striking that balance is the challenge that Paola and her team — Chef de Cuisine Christian Gomez, GM Sandra Eagles, Sous Chef Joshue Ortega-Lopez, Bar Manager Gala Demarin, and Paola’s husband Ryan Smith — confront on a daily, and seasonal, basis. The balanced, though ever-evolving, menu at Buenos Aires Café shows that this restaurant can successfully marry tradition and innovation in a way that will surprise even regulars.

The traditional menu remains the same with year round recipes that were passed down from Paola’s grandmother to her mother and founder Chef Reina Morris. When Paola took over the restaurant though, she sought out a chef with a mind for tradition and an adventurous streak. Chef Chris, with his Peruvian heritage, has helped steer the Argentine-centric menu to encompass flavors and recipes from the whole continent of South America. Paola and Chris relish researching recipes that are found in indigenous South American cooking and making them their own with local ingredients and often a Texas twist. The menu is divided into Argentine classics like Empanadas filled with ground beef, raisins and green olives, Herbed Crepes with roasted spinach, provolone and finished with a Béchamel sauce, and Milanesa a La Napolitana (traditional breaded beef cutlets covered in ham, mozzarella, and house-made marinara). But they also incorporate innovative takes on South American recipes. For example, the restaurant uses locally-sourced fish for the pan-seared Red Snapper served over orzo pasta with blistered tomatoes and broccolini and blends a combination of Argentine and Texas flavors in the Gnocchi Quartet that includes a medley of pumpkin-cinnamon, sweet potato-chipotle, cilantro-jalapeno, and potato-herb gnocchi, tossed with roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, haricots verts, and Parmesan. It’s finished with crema, fresh parsley, red pepper, and a balsamic reduction.

Paola takes an annual trip to Argentina, learning a new skill each time. From hand-made pasta to butchering a whole steer for traditional Argentine cuts seared on the parilla, then these skills, techniques, and recipes find their way to the menu, and so should you.

The basement of the Café has been renovated and converted into a reservations-only cocktail bar called The Milonga Room, where along with Argentine wines and classic cocktails, you’ll find an emphasis on Amaros – herb-infused liqueurs that serve as the foundation for many of the restaurant’s innovative cocktails or enjoyed alone as an aperitif – including Paola’s father’s recipe for homemade Amaro that was found in a box of his old letters.

For reservations text 512.593.1920 and take a peek inside the room:

@milonga_room