Editor’s Note: As of Friday, Dec. 6., the Alvarez family shared that they must move and sell Cafe Buenos Aires due to an unexpected work relocation. The restaurant will be open until Dec. 15 as originally planned, and the family hopes that a local buyer purchases the business to continue serving Argentine food.
For a slice of Argentine culture, look no further than on the corner of Pacific Avenue and Cannon Street in Browne's Addition, where Cafe Buenos Aires opened in October.
There, owner Ana Alvarez plus her husband, Ari, and 26-year-old son, Ari Jr., offer a respite from fast-paced coffee culture.
Instead of 24-ounce to-go concoctions, patrons are encouraged to sit back and have a merienda — a "midday snack" of Argentine coffee or yerba mate paired with a pastry or empanada, a savory handheld pie.
Originally from Mar del Plata, Argentina, the Alvarez family moved to California in 2002 and eventually settled in Spokane in 2009, where they became U.S. citizens. The lack of authentic Argentine food in the area inspired Ana to recreate her family's recipes.
"What happened with us is when we moved we found out that there is no Argentinian food here," she says. "So if we want to do empanadas at home, I have the recipe for the dough."
Replicating the flavors of home wasn't easy, though. Differences in basic ingredients like the flour and butter sold in the U.S. required lots of trial and error to match the dishes Ana grew up with.
In 2019, the Alvarez family launched their first food venture, Tarascon Empanadas, near the North Division Y, but the pandemic forced its closure after just a year. The constant encouragement of former regulars, however, prompted them to open another brick-and-mortar location, hence the move to Browne's Addition.
Yet finding another home for their new cafe was no simple task. The Alvarezes needed a place big enough to accommodate both cooking and baking, but not so big the cafe wouldn't have the quaint atmosphere that they hoped for.
The family reopened the restaurant in the historic Guse House, a Queen Anne-style home with a wraparound front porch and multiple stories.
"It's very European, very Argentinian. Also, the patio outside invites people to come and stay," Ana says.
"Argentina is actually very European," Ari Jr. adds. "If you look at the architecture, the way people talk, what they eat, there is virtually no spicy food in Argentina."
Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, the red-painted house was built in 1901. The Guse family lived there for 58 years until it was sold in 1959 and divided into three apartments. The building was eventually turned into a commercial space, which housed Browne's Tavern from 2014 to 2017 and then Browne's Bistro from 2019 to 2022.
"We actually visited this place about two years ago when the previous restaurant was running, and we decided not to take over that operation because we couldn't figure out how to fit it," says Ari, explaining how they had to move the cafe counterspace farther out into the main floor's seating area to create more kitchen space.
Maintaining the building's historical integrity, with its original light fixtures, hardwood floors and cast-iron radiator, fit the family's vision of emulating a traditional Argentine corner cafe.
Elements of their home country shines throughout the space via photos of Argentina lining the walls, plus a collage of yerba mate packaging, and a staged Argentine cafe scene featuring Ari's poncho, horseshoes and a leather map greets customers as they round the landing to the second floor.
Cafe Buenos Aires, unlike Tarascon Empanadas, serves an array of pastries in the mornings.
"I was the baker in my family ... but I never did it commercially," Ana says.
Ari Jr., who has over seven years of local restaurant experience and recently earned his culinary arts degree at Spokane Community College, encouraged his mother to get a baking certificate.
Ana enrolled in SCC's program. Though she had to leave the program early when her husband faced sudden health complications, Ana completed the commercial baking section, gaining the know-how to translate her at-home baking skills into a commercial operation.
Customer favorites from the cafe's pastry menu include sweet Argentine croissants called medialunas ($4) as well as alfajoritos ($2), which are an Argentine version of macarons filled with dulce de leche (caramelized milk jam), dulce de batata (sweet potato jam) or dulce de membrillo (quince jam).
At 11 am, Cafe Buenos Aires' signature empanadas ($4.25) are ready. Beef is the most popular filling for these handpies, but other flavors include chicken, chorizo, ham and cheese, humita (corn and cheese), and tango (onion and cheese).
Though empanadas are a food of convenience, with Argentinians normally ordering them to-go, their preparation is not so simple. Fillings are prepared a day ahead in large pots, and the dough (tapas) is made from scratch, whereas in Argentina, tapas is usually bought premade.
A custom press closes the empanadas, stamping "Tarascon" on the edge and using beet juice to distinguish the filling varieties.
Ari Jr. added a fusion element to the menu with the cafe's chimichurri fries ($5), which are also offered as a combo ($12-$15) with the empanadas. The side dish seasons the fries with ingredients from chimichurri sauce, an Argentine condiment, like red wine vinegar, parsley and oregano. Served hot and fresh, it's hard to stop yourself from digging straight in at the risk of burning your tongue.
To wash your treat or meal down, a self-service beverage bar on the first floor has drip coffee ($2-$3) and yerba mate ($2-$3). Or get an Americano ($3-$3.50), latte ($3.50-$4) or cappuccino ($3.50-$4).
While Ana and Ari Jr. head up the baking and cooking operations, the beverages were Ari's project to research before opening the cafe. The family makes a custom coffee blend using a combination of roasted beans imported from Argentina and beans roasted locally by Waverly's Coffee.
Cafe Buenos Aires' yerba mate, which uses loose leaves also sourced from Argentina, is the restaurant's most popular beverage item. The highly caffeinated black tea is traditionally drunk from a gourd called a "mate" and uses a special metal straw with a filter on the end called a "bombilla."
Cafe Buenos Aires has become more than a cafe; it's a community hub. Locals and homesick Argentinians alike flock there for a taste of home or a culinary adventure.
As the Alvarez family has witnessed, it's hard to stop at just one or two pastries or empanadas. Their unique addition to Spokane's food scene has people coming back for more.
"They are shy to try one ... and they try and then they go, 'Oh, I need to take it to-go,'" Ari says.
Cafe Buenos Aires • 1924 W. Pacific Ave. • Open Wed-Thu 8 am-2 pm; Fri-Sat 8 am-6 pm • cafe-buenos-aires.com
