El Federal – Oldest bar in operation in the city of Buenos Aires

The Federal It opened its doors in 1864, when San Telmo was a labyrinth of tenements and rental houses where blacks and poor immigrants, especially those from Italy, found shelter.
The Federal Towards the end of the XNUMXth century, it was a brothel and then a warehouse with a beverage outlet until, in the early years of the XNUMXth century, it definitively became the bar-café that continues to this day.

It was born as a grocery store in 1864 on two dirt streets, the same corner of Peru and Carlos Calvo, through which then carts and horses circulated.

Years later, the grocery store was a warehouse and it was common knowledge that on the top floor of the building, right where it is now the drinks warehouse, there was a clandestine brothel, then called "house of tolerance" o "of public women".

They say that in the past The Federal there was a “grocery store” where good Spanish sardines, original figs from Smyrna and excellent Italian olive oil were obtained. Today they would be called delicatessen.

In the early years of the twentieth century it was remodeled with its current appearance and functions as it does today. When digging the well to place the current bar counter, buried corpses were found, probable victims of the terrible yellow fever epidemic that affected Buenos Aires in 1871. Another dramatic event would have occurred on the site when the daughter of the owner of the premises was murdered by her boyfriend, when he found out that his fiancee was unfaithful.

Several films have been filmed in its facilities, such as “Cafetín de Buenos Aires”, “El Tango tells its story”, “Custodio de ladies” and “From the Abyss”.

Now The Federal is part of the declared Notable Bars of the City of Buenos Aires.