Cafe Exedra

[QUOTE=BadMan]I have some clients in town from Amsterdam, and when I explained these peculiar Argentine labor practices to them. They said it sounded much like Amsterdam. And then they said it sounded alot more like France.

Regards,

BM.[/QUOTE]I've worked in both France and Argentina (I am from the US) The labor laws here are much more like the US than France.

The only real difference I see between Argentina and the US is that they are required by law to pay severence, but the severance you receive is very similar to what you would receive in the US (being layed off from a white color job, for example).

But like many things here, what the law says and what actually happens aren't always the same thing.

In France, depending how long you have been with a company, it is typical to get a year's severance. I know people who have gotten over 2. Also, in France, there are laws that prevent companies from laying people off without sufficient reason (keeping the stock price up generally isn't considered sufficient reason).

Yes. But closing the business is sufficient reason, one of the very few ones, even in Europe (France and Germany are not so far apart, France might be even worse)

We had a big scandal a few months ago, Nokia closed a factory in Bochum. The place was highly profitable, and it's opening a few years earlier subsidized by government money. 2600 people on the streets. It's cheaper to build them fuckíng cell phones in Romania.

I'd love to know the real story of what happend at Excedra.

Walked by their today and nothing has been done, almost a month now. The place just sits there empty with no activity. The place was a gold mine and now its nothing. Plus now everyone is out on the street with no real place to go.

Its really ashame, what a waste.

Exon

[QUOTE=Exon123]I'd love to know the real story of what happend at Excedra.

Walked by their today and nothing has been done, almost a month now. The place just sits there empty with no activity. The place was a gold mine and now its nothing. Plus now everyone is out on the street with no real place to go.

Its really ashame, what a waste.

Exon[/QUOTE]Just taking one very important variable in figuring out this mess-look at the owner! What a weaselly looking little fucker he is. Seems to me Exedra was likely fucked as soon as the old man kicked the bucket.

[QUOTE=Doggboy]Just taking one very important variable in figuring out this mess-look at the owner! What a weaselly looking little fucker he is. Seems to me Exedra was likely fucked as soon as the old man kicked the bucket.[/QUOTE]Probably so Dogg.

But what I can't understand is why shut down a perfectly good, profitable business and do nothing with it for almost a month now.

What I'm trying to say is why not keep it running until the very last minute. If renovations are going to be made and a new business plan put in place why not wait until everything is ready, then shut it down.

Counting the girls, the street erchen's, (Flower girls and the like) waiters, bartenders, kitchen people and so on, almost a 100 people have been displaced. Plus a months revenue, which is not "chump change" by the way.

Nothing seems to add up, so there must be some story we'll never know thats forced this change of events.

Exon

[QUOTE=Doggboy]Just taking one very important variable in figuring out this mess-look at the owner! What a weaselly looking little fucker he is. Seems to me Exedra was likely fucked as soon as the old man kicked the bucket.[/QUOTE]I was told last night that the guy I thought was the owner of Exedra is actually not the owner. Mea culpa. Though the real owner is probably a jerk as well.:)

In today's "Critica" newspaper there is a full page article on Exedra - Quite interesting!

If I have time, later on this evening I'll translate it.

Yes, Aqualung, I was just about to post.

Critica is a new tabloid in BsAs. You'll see in the upper left Se Vendio Excedra, La Catedral del Gato - El Ultimo Maullido.

Exedra has been sold, the Cathedral of the Cat - The Last Meow

This is the best I can do. Aqualung, anybody else, please correct me where I'm wrong! There's a couple of things I couldn't figure out!

A Temple of Chicas and Night Owls Has Closed.

Severo Pereyra died of a heart attack November 6, 2006, completing 32 years of being in charge of Exedra, the classic confiteria on the corner of Carlos Pelligrini and Cordoba, known as "the bar with the most famous putas of the Capital Federal." Since then, the 22 waiters and more than 40 prostitutes that filled the tables endured a long agonizing wait that ended March 1, when the place changed owners, following a deal made by Rafael Rereira Aragón, owner of Rond Point, Las Violetas and the Café de los Angelitos. The price was 1.3 million dollars and the place is now closed for rennovations. It's a bummer (sorry, that's the only word I can up with for bajón! For us, complained Vanina, a 35 year old prostitute who had worked "for years" in the bar. Seated at a table of a bar nearby, she looked sadly at the facade of Exedra and wondered when it would reopen.

At its table appeared politicians, sindicalistas (my dictionary says trade unionists) Writers, actors, celebrities, murderers, rogues, lawyers and generations of prostitutes and unfaithful men. "The Exedra girls were legendary" said Manolo, ex-partner and right hand man of the deceased Pereyra." It is best known as a home for putas, put one to which putas came for 34 years. The difference isn't small. We never had girls working for us, but we always tried to have the most interesting for a very interesting clientele." According to waiters and customers, 16 generations of putas have passed through Exedra. "We've encountered girls who were in their 20's back in the 70's and now are grandmothers," said Manolo.

Para los códigos de la calle: For the codes of the street? Exedra was an institution. With 98 tables available 24 hours a day, it opened for business November 5, 1974 and closed only one day in 34 years. In its best times, it served five thousand people a day. (Cinco mil, that's what it says! In the month before it closed, there were 1,500 people a day, a drop off of 30% with respect to 2007. (I think that's more or less the idea!

At the end of 1974 it was one of the first places that Carlos Menem hung out in after he became governor of La Rioja. Jorge Luis Borges and Mar[ia Kodama were also regulars. Also found at its tables were the writers Ernesto Sábato and Silvina Bullrich, the tango singer Edmundo Rivero and Javier Portales came to have a drink after dining at Edelweiss with Alberto Olmedo.

A large number of soccer players could be found leaning on the bar. Old employees remember César Luis Menotti, Carlos Salvador Bilardo, Carlos Bianchi, Beto Márcico and the ex-referees Javier Castrilli and Guillermo Nimo.

"It's better to ask who didn't come to Exedra," answered Manolo when asked to reconstruct a list of the clientele. "We were the first to open up downtown. In the beginning we didn't have any competition. Then you could park in the middle of 9 de Julio. There was only Rond Point and Café Tabak, that always maintained their level," remembered Manolo. Between '74 and '75 the bar also had customers like Marcos Osatinsky and Robert Quieto, two founders and directors of Montoneros that held large meetings there.

In its first years, the bar didn't have the usual bar tables. It was full of "exedras," sillones semicirculares (semicircular chairs, barstools? Like they had in bars in Las Vegas. From that came the name of the bar: in ancient Rome that was what they called curved semicolumnas with seats to converse in the open air. "After the military coup, Exedra was like Casablanca, on one side the repressers and on the other the guerrillas," recalled Manolo. "Also during those years many special forces came in and drank whiskey and we asked them tolets us keep the firearms (fierros) behind the bar."

With the return of democracy, the sindicalistas returned. They had made a wage agreement and celebrated with drinks and girls for all, for about 500 to 700 dollars. The waiters remebered that the ex secretary general of the CGT, Saúl Ubaldini had been a regular (iba seguido)

The secrecy and discretion were the conditions that allowed Exedra to function for so many years. Maybe for that various criminals were able to sit at the tables with such impunity. "Even though it was open to the public, it was also a place of trampa (trampa. Shady dealings, more or less) It was a unique place: there was always one place where a family was eating dinner alongside a chica talking with a client." said Manolo.

After the economic crisis of 2001 it was on the point of closing, but the devaluation of the peso meant a new commercial opportunity, although the last years were marked by the diminishing popularity of that part of the city. On March 1st the curtain came down. "I hope that everything inside doesn't end up in a dumpster," said Manolo with a worried voice. Many pass by at night on the corner to find out when the place will reopen. "But it seems that we're running out of time (Pero parece que falta tiempo)" said the old owners (antiguos dueños) For them, the chicas and the former waiters, "Exedra won't ever be the same" why sus secretos quedarán guardados para siempre.

[QUOTE=Rockin Bob]This is the best I can do. Aqualung, anybody else, please correct me where I'm wrong! There's a couple of things I couldn't figure out!

A Temple of Chicas and Night Owls Has Closed.

Severo Pereyra died of a heart attack November 6, 2006, completing 32 years of being in charge of Exedra, the classic confiteria on the corner of Carlos Pelligrini and Cordoba, known as "the bar with the most famous putas of the Capital Federal." Since then, the 22 waiters and more than 40 prostitutes that filled the tables endured a long agonizing wait that ended March 1, when the place changed owners, following a deal made by Rafael Rereira Aragón, owner of Rond Point, Las Violetas and the Café de los Angelitos. The price was 1.3 million dollars and the place is now closed for rennovations. It's a bummer (sorry, that's the only word I can up with for bajón! For us, complained Vanina, a 35 year old prostitute who had worked "for years" in the bar. Seated at a table of a bar nearby, she looked sadly at the facade of Exedra and wondered when it would reopen.

At its table appeared politicians, sindicalistas (my dictionary says trade unionists. Writers, actors, celebrities, murderers, rogues, lawyers and generations of prostitutes and unfaithful men. "The Exedra girls were legendary" said Manolo, ex-partner and right hand man of the deceased Pereyra." It is best known as a home for putas, put one to which putas came for 34 years. The difference isn't small. We never had girls working for us, but we always tried to have the most interesting for a very interesting clientele." According to waiters and customers, 16 generations of putas have passed through Exedra. "We've encountered girls who were in their 20's back in the 70's and now are grandmothers," said Manolo.

Para los códigos de la calle: For the codes of the street? Exedra was an institution. With 98 tables available 24 hours a day, it opened for business November 5, 1974 and closed only one day in 34 years. In its best times, it served five thousand people a day. (Cinco mil, that's what it says! In the month before it closed, there were 1,500 people a day, a drop off of 30% with respect to 2007. (I think that's more or less the idea!

At the end of 1974 it was one of the first places that Carlos Menem hung out in after he became governor of La Rioja. Jorge Luis Borges and Mar[ia Kodama were also regulars. Also found at its tables were the writers Ernesto Sábato and Silvina Bullrich, the tango singer Edmundo Rivero and Javier Portales came to have a drink after dining at Edelweiss with Alberto Olmedo.

A large number of soccer players could be found leaning on the bar. Old employees remember César Luis Menotti, Carlos Salvador Bilardo, Carlos Bianchi, Beto Márcico and the ex-referees Javier Castrilli and Guillermo Nimo.

"It's better to ask who didn't come to Exedra," answered Manolo when asked to reconstruct a list of the clientele. "We were the first to open up downtown. In the beginning we didn't have any competition. Then you could park in the middle of 9 de Julio. There was only Rond Point and Café Tabak, that always maintained their level," remembered Manolo. Between '74 and '75 the bar also had customers like Marcos Osatinsky and Robert Quieto, two founders and directors of Montoneros that held large meetings there.

In its first years, the bar didn't have the usual bar tables. It was full of "exedras," sillones semicirculares (semicircular chairs, barstools? Like they had in bars in Las Vegas. From that came the name of the bar: in ancient Rome that was what they called curved semicolumnas with seats to converse in the open air. "After the military coup, Exedra was like Casablanca, on one side the repressers and on the other the guerrillas," recalled Manolo. "Also during those years many special forces came in and drank whiskey and we asked them tolets us keep the firearms (fierros) behind the bar."

With the return of democracy, the sindicalistas returned. They had made a wage agreement and celebrated with drinks and girls for all, for about 500 to 700 dollars. The waiters remebered that the ex secretary general of the CGT, Saúl Ubaldini had been a regular (iba seguido)

The secrecy and discretion were the conditions that allowed Exedra to function for so many years. Maybe for that various criminals were able to sit at the tables with such impunity. "Even though it was open to the public, it was also a place of trampa (trampa. Shady dealings, more or less) It was a unique place: there was always one place where a family was eating dinner alongside a chica talking with a client." said Manolo.

After the economic crisis of 2001 it was on the point of closing, but the devaluation of the peso meant a new commercial opportunity, although the last years were marked by the diminishing popularity of that part of the city. On March 1st the curtain came down. "I hope that everything inside doesn't end up in a dumpster," said Manolo with a worried voice. Many pass by at night on the corner to find out when the place will reopen. "But it seems that we're running out of time (Pero parece que falta tiempo)" said the old owners (antiguos dueños) For them, the chicas and the former waiters, "Exedra won't ever be the same" why sus secretos quedarán guardados para siempre.[/QUOTE]It's says nothing about the waiter not getting paid or going to court?

That's a good translation Bob!

I was trying to recall when I started going there and remembered it was during the 1978 soccer World Cup held here in Argentina then during the 90's I had an office right up above it on the 4th floor!

Now I'm getting all sentimental and mushy! Hahahahahahahaha

Thank You Rockin Bob, great post.

But it still doesn't answer my question "WHY"

One thing the owners son must be a piece of shit. And the new owners must have shit for brains, why close it down before your ready for renovations, look at all the cash flow the've lost.

One thing is starting to make sense, why Mirta, (Hilda) left. She told me she'd worked the door at Excedra for over 20 years, then suddenly left. Now we know the reason. The CockSucker son of the former owner drive her out of their.

Again great post of the history.

Exon

Here's the translation of the sidebar, Refugio de varias generaciones de represores.

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Refuge of Various Generations of Oppressors.

From the beginning Exedra was an unavoidable stop of porteña nightlife. Perhaps that's why the spies of SIDE classified the corner as "level 10." "It meant it was off-limits. Why? I don't know, but one of them told me that," said Manolo, alluding to one of the customers of the bar. This group of clients was headed by general Carlso Albert Martínez, chief of SIDE in the time of Videla. Exedra is located at Córdoba 999 and at the same time that the bar opened its doors, the private security firm Magister began operations on the sixth floor of 991: a lair created by military intelligence before the miltary coup, out of which operated a task force set up by general Paladino. The gang was commanded by the torturer Aníbal Gordon along with Eduardo Alfredo Ruffo, José Miguel Save, and el Indio Castillo, among others. During the day, at one of the tables that faced Córdoba, with the return of democracy, the presence of Gordon changed to that of his persuer: the deceased Guillermo Patricio Kelly, who sat in the same place since 1985 trying to capture him.

In the 90', the heaviness (la pesada) didn't leave the place. The offices of Alfredo Yabrán were two blocks away from the bar for twenty years, and one of the customers was the retired commander Adolfo Donda Tigel, aka "Jerónimo" or "Palito," who as chief of intelligence oversaw the taskforce of ESMA (Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada) and in those years was the key man in the private security agency Brides (brigadas de la ESMA) one of the business run by the emresario telepostal who died by suicide, alone and abandoned (referring to Yabrán)

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Here are some links to fill you in on the details. Interesting reading!

[url]http://www.desaparecidos.org/arg/to.../donda/eng.html[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfredo_Yabr%C3%A1n[/url]
[url]http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpa...756C0A96E958260[/url]
[url]http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpa...75AC0A961948260[/url]

Just in case anybody was wondering.

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exedra[/url]