A Neighbourhood Guide To Chacarita, Buenos Aires

For a long time, Chacarita was perhaps best known for its cemetery, where the tango singer Carlos Gardel and Gustavo Cerati, frontman of the Argentine rock band Soda Stereo, are buried. But more recently this neighbourhood, a short ride from downtown Buenos Aires on the B line of the Subte (the city’s metro) has become a popular hangout for artists, chefs and young creatives. Walkable, spacious and full of ideas, this Tetris of low-slung houses, shops and arcades is fast becoming a place where things happen.

Palermo, the sprawling district of parks, boutiques and cocktail bars, has long been the centre of the city’s creative life. Spiralling rents and long queues at its most popular venues have sent porteños, as the city’s residents are known, looking further afield. Immediately to the west, Chacarita and neighbouring Colegiales have emerged as the alternative, their border so blurred that the pair are known informally as ‘Chacagiales’. Colegiales is more residential and conventionally pretty; Chacarita more industrial and bohemian, with many of its new venues opening in its galpónes (warehouses). 

These include Don Gato, a spot to drink Fernet and Coke (the bitter Italian amaro mixed with cola and Argentina’s unofficial national drink) and talk philosophy with someone you met yesterday. You can sit in the specialty cafe of the moment while number 39 buses idle at the depot across the street. There are restaurant openings, creative writing workshops, parties pairing immersive art with techno (at Artlab), pizzerias open until dawn and the new natural wine (more on these below).

“Chacarita is a neighbourhood with a lot of contrasting identities – it’s a little bit trashy, a little bit cool; lively and effervescent,” says local resident and journalist Cecilia Boullosa, the founder of food platform Chica Eléctrica. “Many new-generation cooks have settled here and stylish all-day cafés coexist with the old-timers’ pizzerias; the historic Italian-Porteño cantinas with the Bib Gourmands.”

Lucila Sarquis, a specialist in the neighbourhood’s art scene, recommends Galpón de Guevara, which stages “underground” productions that provide a counterpoint to the grand theatres of Avenida Corrientes, the city’s answer to Broadway. She also mentions the Ruth Benzacar gallery. Founded in 1965 and based just over the border in Villa Crespo, it represents emerging and established artists, with Nada De Carne Sobre Nosotras – a recent theatrical project based on short stories by Argentine horror writer Mariana Enríquez – unfolding over a two-hour walk through Chacarita cemetery.

“We chose to open here because it combines the calm of a Buenos Aires neighbourhood, with its idiosyncrasies and local shops, with plenty of culinary possibilities,” says Nicolás Tykocki, chef and creator of Ácido, whose inventive dishes have earned it a Bib Gourmand (the Michelin Guide’s distinction for good food at reasonable prices). In 2025 Michelin also named Nicolás its Young Chef in Argentina. “You’re not in the centre of the scene – instead people come to Chacarita specifically to eat. The restaurant is contemporary in many forms, but has deeply traditional roots. That’s why I feel the neighbourhood and we connect.”

Opened in 2025, La Noire Petit Hotel is a six-room boutique in a beautifully restored building that feels like living for a few days in a traditional old house. Drop into Medio Pan y un Libro, a small independent bookshop with a cafe to linger in after you choose your next read. From here explore the best of Chacarita’s food scene: grab a spot on Lardito’s inner courtyard for iced wine, or the terrace of La Fuerza, a fantastic place for vermouth and tapas; or get a natural wine at Naranjo Bar. For dinner, ask for the off-menu dishes at Ácido, located in a former funeral home, or try the wood-fired vegetarian cooking at Chuí, beneath the railway viaduct on the Villa Crespo border. Book well ahead for cheese and charcuterie at hot new opening Anchoita. End the night at Niceto Club, a short ride away in Palermo and one of that district’s best venues for alternative, independent and urban music.