Best Cafes for Working

[domthegreat]

I like many of us here on BAExpats, have a computer job. As such I get sick and tired of staring at my wall in my apartment everyday. So I tend to do half a day's work at home, and then I head over to the Starbucks around the corner.

My question to everyone is this: What are the best places to take your laptop to in the city (besides Starbucks) for work? I like Starbucks because its clean, its open late, and I can plug my laptop in while I work, and no one bothers me.

 

[sergio]

I have always found La Biela best for this. It is very large, spacious and it doesn't transform into a restaurant at lunch time like so many cafes nowadays. You can stay all day and no-one will mind. The only caveats are some haughty waiters and internet that occasionally goes down for extended times. For me an absolute requirement is that there is NO music. Most places blast rock and I can't concentrate. La Biela does not play any music.

 

[Roxana]

Velvet, at Salguero and Charcas or Scuzi, at Av Scalabrini Ortiz and Cabellko are good too, but which area is more convenient to you?

 

[Uncle Dermot]

Defo any of the Mc Donald's places as you can stay there for hours without ordering anything and nobody would bother you.

 

[domthegreat]

Uncle Dermot:

I like MacDonalds when I am out and about, for that very same reason...Plus the bathrooms are always clean and you can use them for free with no one bothering you at all...

Everyone Else:
Do any of the places you all mentioned have outlets to plug in? I tend to be at the cafe for hours when I need to work, and I dont want to have to leave after 2 hours because my battery dies...

 

[SydSol]

Oy, my god! You are in Buenos Aires and do computer work at a Starbucks or McDonalds coffee shop? You have to be kidding! There are zillions of coffee shops, historic and famous bursting around here! As a writer, I made it my passion to go and see just about every single historic cafe in Buenos Aires and do work from there! You really can't go wrong with most coffee shops. The best thing about it is that they leave you alone to write and work. You can spend hours there and they don't care. Really the only one you can't spend a lot of time in to work at is Cafe Tortoni, naturally, because it's so busy with tourists. But some of my favorites are Bar Federal in San Telmo, El Gato Negro, La Puerto Rico (it does play music but I block it out easily, I have kids.) I live in Palermo Soho, so am at the Galleon at Gurruchaga and Santa Fe a lot, or el Pinguino de Palermo on Borges and Paraguay. Cafe Moderna y Clasica is great, however, i did have to move for the lunch crowd back to the bookstore area to work. La Biela is nice, but you'll go broke it's so expensive and too touristy. Go to Ateneo book store and pick up a nice map that has all the historic coffee shops on it. Good luck and I sure hope you get away from corporate American "coffee" anyway you can!!

 

[Roxana]

Some public libraries (bibliotecas) in Capital Federal have wi fi connection, however they might be closed in January. Same with libraries at public universities.

 

[sabby22]

Oy, my god! You are in Buenos Aires and do computer work at a Starbucks or McDonalds coffee shop? You have to be kidding! There are zillions of coffee shops, historic and famous bursting around here! As a writer, I made it my passion to go and see just about every single historic cafe in Buenos Aires and do work from there! You really can't go wrong with most coffee shops. The best thing about it is that they leave you alone to write and work. You can spend hours there and they don't care. Really the only one you can't spend a lot of time in to work at is Cafe Tortoni, naturally, because it's so busy with tourists. But some of my favorites are Bar Federal in San Telmo, El Gato Negro, La Puerto Rico (it does play music but I block it out easily, I have kids.) I live in Palermo Soho, so am at the Galleon at Gurruchaga and Santa Fe a lot, or el Pinguino de Palermo on Borges and Paraguay. Cafe Moderna y Clasica is great, however, i did have to move for the lunch crowd back to the bookstore area to work. La Biela is nice, but you'll go broke it's so expensive and too touristy. Go to Ateneo book store and pick up a nice map that has all the historic coffee shops on it. Good luck and I sure hope you get away from corporate American "coffee" anyway you can!!

Cafe Tortoni in Avenida de Mayo is great too!!!

 

[sesamosinsal]

Oy, my god! You are in Buenos Aires and do computer work at a Starbucks or McDonalds coffee shop? You have to be kidding! There are zillions of coffee shops, historic and famous bursting around here! As a writer, I made it my passion to go and see just about every single historic cafe in Buenos Aires and do work from there! You really can't go wrong with most coffee shops. The best thing about it is that they leave you alone to write and work. You can spend hours there and they don't care. Really the only one you can't spend a lot of time in to work at is Cafe Tortoni, naturally, because it's so busy with tourists. But some of my favorites are Bar Federal in San Telmo, El Gato Negro, La Puerto Rico (it does play music but I block it out easily, I have kids.) I live in Palermo Soho, so am at the Galleon at Gurruchaga and Santa Fe a lot, or el Pinguino de Palermo on Borges and Paraguay. Cafe Moderna y Clasica is great, however, i did have to move for the lunch crowd back to the bookstore area to work. La Biela is nice, but you'll go broke it's so expensive and too touristy. Go to Ateneo book store and pick up a nice map that has all the historic coffee shops on it. Good luck and I sure hope you get away from corporate American "coffee" anyway you can!!

You act as if Buenos Aires is the coffee capital of South America! The coffee in Buenos Aires is an atrocity. It's vile, disgusting, vomit-inducing crap. I don't have enough adjectives in my vocabulary to show how much I detest that "coffee."

The coffee shops in Buenos Aires are cute, but the vast majority I've been in don't have outlets to plug-in the computers; WiFi access is sketchy; and again, the coffee is horrendous.

McDonald's isn't that great either. No outlets to plug-in, as far as I know.

So, if I had to tell you a place to go, I'd recommend Starbucks in Puerto Madero. The place is 100% marketing. However, Starbucks is unfortunately the only place in Buenos Aires where you can buy a cup of coffee that isn't going to make your stomach turn. The downside of Starbucks is that it's too "cool," so you have all of the 20something Argentines trying to keep up with the Joneses. Good luck finding a place to sit, unless you go way out to the Starbucks locations in Puerto Madero.

 

[Napoleon]

You act as if Buenos Aires is the coffee capital of South America! The coffee in Buenos Aires is an atrocity. It's vile, disgusting, vomit-inducing crap. I don't have enough adjectives in my vocabulary to show how much I detest that "coffee."

Ditto

The coffee shops in Buenos Aires are cute, but the vast majority I've been in don't have outlets to plug-in the computers; WiFi access is sketchy; and again, the coffee is horrendous.

McDonald's isn't that great either. No outlets to plug-in, as far as I know.

So, if I had to tell you a place to go, I'd recommend Starbucks in Puerto Madero. The place is 100% marketing. However, Starbucks is unfortunately the only place in Buenos Aires where you can buy a cup of coffee that isn't going to make your stomach turn. The downside of Starbucks is that it's too "cool," so you have all of the 20something Argentines trying to keep up with the Joneses. Good luck finding a place to sit, unless you go way out to the Starbucks locations in Puerto Madero.

Almost all Aroma cafes have WiFi & power outlets.

Some VOLTA's do as well.