Baby budgets, big bars: Buenos Aires bartenders master doing more with less

I’ve long admired Argentines’ ability to create something out of nothing, or at least with relatively little. Indeed, it’s a trait I have willingly adopted as an entrepreneur in order to get my own ventures off the ground. That creativity, coupled with passion, the drive to succeed, and a mere US$10,000, were the founding blocks for one of Buenos Aires’ longest-standing cocktail bars. In 2004, in a very post-2001 crisis Argentina, a precocious young couple, both aged 22, pulled together exactly those funds to open a bar. They chose Villa Crespo, where little, gastronomically speaking, existed at the time because they wanted to create a local bar in a local neighborhood. They chose a space that had previously operated as a carpentry workshop and antiques store, and decided to upcycle it as best they could. And they wanted to create a space that would be democratic; that’s to say, doors open to whomsoever wished to drink a Manhattan or, a familiar favorite, a Fernandito. That couple was Julián Díaz and Flor Capella, and that bar was 878. El Ocho, as it’s fondly known, was indeed opened with just US$10,000, a sum that seems pretty funny today, according to Julián. The antiques store owner thought they were going to give the space back within two months. “It seemed ridiculous that we, at that age, would open a dedicated cocktail bar in Villa Crespo at that time,” Díaz tells the Herald. “But in order for that to happen, we paid for everything in installments and bought everything secondhand. Plus, it was a speakeasy, with no sign, just the 878 ‘house’ number, so of course that meant that it was an illegal project,” he recalls. Adamant that they wanted to create a quality product, from day one Flor and Julián squeezed oranges by hand and used seasonal products, dismissing canned and artificial fruit flavors to make cocktails. The vision of creating a local bar that used local ingredients from the very first drinks list was clear, although inadvertently, the bar’s illegality spawned a speakeasy concept that paved the way for dozens more hidden bars in Buenos Aires. “We’re pretty sure that it was the first closed-door bar in Latin America,” says Díaz, “but it had nothing to do with aesthetics, using the prohibition era as a theme, or making an exclusive space; we’ve never implemented passwords or had a dress code. We just wanted it to be a democratic space that people would come to because it had been recommended by word of mouth (because social media then was just message boards) and could be accessed by anyone and everyone.”  Their conviction and philosophy paid off: 878 was the first Argentine owner-run bar to rank in the World’s 50 Best Bars in 2011, as a new entry at #25. (To clarify, a year earlier, the Four Seasons bar and all the capital behind it — long shuttered in that context but reopened as Pony Line in 2013 — made the cut and a year later, on the crest of the speakeasy wave, Frank’s also made the list.) More than a decade later, two young bartenders with substantial experience started on a similar path but this time with US$15,000 to invest. Regardless of the dollar figure, it was their life’s savings. They were able to open a bar on a relatively prominent corner in Palermo Soho in 2019 in the long, trendy barrio for restaurants and watering holes, eventually taking over the upstairs space to set up a bartending school then branching out next door to increase capacity. Six years later, Tres Monos was named the best bar in South America 2025 by 50 Best Bars for the second consecutive year, also ranking a downright regal 10th in the world. It’s also been a labor of love for co-founders and co-owners Charly Aguinsky and Seba Atienza, but global recognition has proved fruitful. “Seba and I opened the bar entirely with our savings, without any type of external investor or loan,” Charly tells the Herald. “It was around the start of 2019, and the dollar was at something like 38 or 40 pesos, and by the time we opened in July, it had already gone up to 60. We imagined that it would be difficult starting out, but the truth is that business was good from the beginning, and we were able to recover that initial investment in eight months.” It was a great but brief initial success because nine months after opening, the pandemic hit. Both duos have been able to grow their stables. Julián and Flor have specialized in resuscitation, bringing back to life forgotten and abandoned establishments such as the bar notable Los Galgos on Avenida Callao, turning a former industrial bakery in Villa Devoto into Michelin-recommended Raix restaurant, and creating a top-notch pizza and empanada joint out of second bar notable, Roma del Abasto. Charly and Seba, meanwhile, have since opened La Uat, a party bar in the thick of Palermo Soho, and, earlier this year, Victor Audio Bar in partnership with the team behind Niño Gordo restaurant; audaciously, just six months after opening, Victor ranked in the 50 Best Bars 2025 long list at 87. Proof that humble beginnings, paired with ambition, blood, sweat, and passion, can pay off.