Avenida Corrientes: theatres, bookshops and the street that never sleeps

Corrientes runs for 70 blocks from the river to Chacarita, and at night its heart, between Esmeralda and Callao, belongs to the theatres, the late bookshops and the pizzerias. Follow it from the Obelisco to the Abasto, where Carlos Gardel lived, with the places in our guide along the way.

Every city has a street that stays up later than the rest. In Buenos Aires it is Corrientes, still called “la calle Corrientes” although it was made an avenue long ago. It runs for 70 blocks from Puerto Madero to Chacarita, through Balvanera, Almagro and Villa Crespo, but its heart beats between Esmeralda and the Avenida Callao, where the theatres, bookshops, pizzerias and bares notables crowd together.

The street that never sleeps

Its name honours the first city in the country to support Argentine independence, the City’s tourism office notes. Corrientes saw the golden age of tango, when the great musicians of the first half of the 20th century played in its bars, theatres and cabarets, and the spirit of the 1940s and of Carlos Gardel still hangs over it.

In 1936 the decision was taken to widen the street into an avenue, and the theatres followed. Since April 2019 the stretch from Callao to Libertad has been closed to traffic from 7pm, so the evening crowds can walk in the road beneath the marquees.

The theatres

Begin at the Obelisco, where Corrientes crosses the vast Avenida 9 de Julio, and walk west. Dozens of stages line the avenue, from the official and commercial circuits to the alternative scene, from great musicals to one-person plays. The Teatro San Martín, at number 1530, is one of the City’s public theatres, run by the Complejo Teatral de Buenos Aires; its programme and tickets are on complejoteatral.gob.ar.

Pizza and helado

Corrientes is also where the city’s most famous pizzerias gather, the tourism office notes, and eating in one is an experience in itself. A few blocks off the avenue, near the Teatro Colón, El Cuartito, at Talcahuano 937, was born in 1934 in a tiny triangular room: order a slice of muzzarella and eat it standing at the counter, as the regulars do.

See Corrientes twice: once by daylight, and once when the marquees come on.

Then, for dessert, the helado. Scannapieco has a counter in the Paseo La Plaza at Corrientes 1660, and Heladería Cadore, at 1695, has made its ice cream in the same shop since 1957; it stays open until midnight, and until 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, long after the curtain comes down.

Out to the Abasto

By day, follow Corrientes west into Balvanera. At number 3247 stands the Abasto, from 1889 to 1984 the main wholesale market for fresh produce in the city; since 1998 its great hall has been a shopping centre, the largest in Buenos Aires in its own words.

A short walk away, at Jean Jaurès 735, is the house where Carlos Gardel lived with his mother from 1927 until he left Argentina on 7 November 1933. It opened as the Museo Casa Carlos Gardel in 2003, and his voice plays through its rooms; it is closed on Tuesdays.

Our advice: see Corrientes twice, once by day for the Abasto and the Casa Carlos Gardel, and once after dark, when the road closes to cars, the marquees light up and the city sits down to pizza and helado at midnight.