So, there we were in La Farola. It's a cafe/restaurant like a thousand others in the city, where countless Porteños have lunch, merienda (afternoon tea) or dinner. It has the classic seating, wooden table and chair sets in thick beech, each set is a square table big enough for two. This lets the waiters arrange the seating depending on how many people come in, I've seen tables flung together to seat 20. There are about 30 double sets of tables in the cafe, three rows of seating for four, ten deep, and another set of tables outside on the pavement (on Avenida Cabildo, a six lane two way main artery into the city). Along one side is the counter, it runs from front to back, the full length of the place. I usually pop in there on the way to Anglo School in the evening for a coffee (because, in this place, for three pesos you get a coffee, a little fresh orange juice, water and a couple of sweet pastries (usually filled with dulce de leche)) and I am always astonished at the number of staff. I counted twelve, waiters and counter staff and usually, at 6pm they are not particularly busy.

We went in there after Anglo School (just before heading to the cinema on the next block) though and it was a different story. The place was packed. There were 16 staff visible and they were all working at full tilt. Three girls were taking telephone orders and every couple of minutes a big chap would come out of the kitchen carrying a tray of chips the size of a turkey roasting tray. These trays would be wrapped up behind the counter and one of the army of delivery guys would scoot off on his moped. So in addition to 150 customers at any one time, they seemed to be feeding half the population of Belgrano too.

And the food? Well there was plenty of it and it was pretty tasty.

btw, the photo is of bar El Federal, much more photogenic
  ¶ 7:47 PM