Hamish Smith visits a bar with a vision to expand the horizons of hospitality across Buenos Aires, opening up opportunities for young people from disadvantaged communities.

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We’re in the kitchen of a modest restaurant in the Mugica barrio of Buenos Aires, Argentina, not far from where Atienza grew up. His was a different story, but he appreciates more than most that what the people of this former shanty town need most is opportunity. 

Just upstairs are a dozen or so students who grew up here – they’re learning how to make cocktails. On other days at Niño Gordo restaurant there are cooking and barista classes as part of the school’s gastronomic programme. 

Should the students complete them – most do – they have a pretty high chance of a career in hospitality; something previously beyond the people of the city’s most deprived barrios.

I’m among a ragtag of international bartenders and media brought here to witness the programme first hand. We’ve been driven into the heart of the barrio on the back of motorbike-powered pick-up trucks, with loose, fold-up chairs out back for seats. None of this would be a good idea but for our escorts, who have earned a little good will around these parts. The school is from the hearts and minds of the owners of the bar Tres Monos (Three Monkeys) – the aforementioned Atienza, Charly Aguinsky and Gus Vocke. Five years ago, they decided to team up with local community worker Labrador to extend their love for hospitality training to a wider set of people. 

Through their network and work placements, 60 of the programme’s students are now working in bars, cafes and restaurants – many of the best venues in Buenos Aires. Seventeen former students work directly for the trio’s three bars – their flagship Tres Monos (a four-time member of The World’s 50 Best Bars), late-night volume space La Uat and recent American-style bar Victor.

Tres Monos is the driver. It’s a small bar whose international notoriety has brought opportunities to think big. “It’s more than a bar,” says Atienza, explaining that the success of the venue means they no longer just serve drinks, but communities too. The next steps are to expand the school’s footprint. “We talk about it a lot – we want the project to grow to other neighbourhoods,” he says. “We can bring guys from other neighbourhoods to this school, or we are also thinking about doing the same [creating more schools] in other places.”

Atienza would also like to see hospitality be the answer for communities outside of Buenos Aires, perhaps even extending the programme beyond Argentina. “It would be a privilege to run the programme in places in other South American countries like Colombia, Bolivia… we’re talking to people in other countries. We want it to grow.”

There are barriers too. Time is one – the Argentinian economy and the success of the bars within it another. “We need the business to be going well, because right now the economic situation in Argentina is not good. I need to act with my head here [not just my heart], because the bars make the money for these projects we love.”

Tres Monos

We should talk about the bar. Set on the corner of a leafy street in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires, it’s a small place that packs a punch. Going against the grain of what you might expect from a bar of such international standing – this place dresses down, not up. There’s graffiti and neon, rock music and an atmosphere wrapped up in a distinctly punk attitude. But look closer and this is no everyday dive bar – or at least, it’s a dive bar with drinks that are a few notches up on the serious spectrum. Cocktails such as Rompe Quinoto are a mix of the bar’s own wine and kumquat liqueur, Hesperidina, and vermouth blend, while Viva Peonia is Gin Apostoles, Shinku Tinto, house orange liqueur and tonic.

Local sourcing isn’t something that’s talked about much, but the menu is peppered with Argentinian and own-label products, not least the range of liqueurs and wines. This is partly pragmatism (Argentina has long put tariffs on international products and, coupled with hyper inflation, many imports become unviable) and partly because the trio believe that an Argentinian bar should speak Argentinian. They have created own-label spirits – including a bourbon-style whiskey with local grains – liqueurs, sake and wines, including Sauvignon Blanc and pét-nat sparkling.

The bar has grown too – recently it expanded into the site next door, making a small bar a much bigger one. That’s great news for Tres Monos fans who can’t always get a spot at the bar, but there are ripples further and wider. Across the city to barrios where a career in hospitality is now a feature of the horizon.