Lo de Hansen, a mythical Palermo bar where a tango was banned

Hansen's restaurantwas the most famous nightlife venue in Buenos Aires from the last decade of the 19th century until 1903. It was a point of reference for the performance of a whole generation of musicians and the best tango dancers of the time used to go there. It was located in the heart of the Tres de Febrero Park, in the neighbourhood of Palermo, with its entrance on Sarmiento Avenue between the railway tracks and Vieytes Avenue.

Those were public lands and there, in 1869, the Municipality of Buenos Aires had built a beautiful gazebo that housed a restaurant on the lands that had belonged to Juan Manuel de Rosas, with the idea of renting it out to private individuals. It was called "Restorán Palermo" and its design reproduced that of the large open-air restaurants that were fashionable in Europe at that time.
This restaurant was operated with varying degrees of success by different concessionaires, until 1875, when a German born in Hamburg called Johan Hansen appeared on the scene, who, as the new consignee, gave a new stamp to the restaurant, so that from then on nobody spoke of the Palermo Restaurant, but referred to it as "Palermo Restaurant".About Hansen"
The reality is that "about Hansen"It was not only a restaurant: showing a luxury never seen before in a restaurant, it was a mixture of "sumptuous brothel and Tango Mecca", as well as a restaurant. A not very saintly antecedent of the "cabarets" that followed to illuminate the nights of Buenos Aires.

It was a meeting place for "bacanes" and "malandras", for "patoteros" and "malandras", for "patoteros" and "gente de avería". Of dancers and "cafishios", who mixed shamelessly with representatives of the snobbish aristocracy, who were delirious to live those exciting nights offered in "Lo de Hansen". Because there they could see tango dancing well, there they could listen to the best "typical" orchestras of the time, enjoy the very pleasant company of beautiful "coperas" who made them feel that they were what they could never be and forget, even if it was only for one night, a sad and boring life.

But the bottom line was that there was action. Because fist fights or knife fights were commonplace and frequent. The challenges, the dirty looks, the "squeezing" of a clueless man who dared to ask the "mina" of the pardo Bazán to dance, or the fight between women who wanted the same man, were the spice of those exciting nights, which attracted a heterogeneous audience that used to fill the venue's capacity, knowing that it was possible to stay away from that world and that while dancing some nice tangos, one could enjoy excellent drinks and a first class gastronomic service.

"Lo de Hansen" became fashionable and the most glittering figures of the show business, the arts, music and politics went there. The most famous tango orchestras in the history of our popular music played there, as well as the best singers and songwriters. There danced "el Cachafaz" and even some Argentinean President dared to "cortes" on its dance floor. During those years, there was no illustrious visitor who was not tempted to get to know what was being talked about in the most worldly salons of Europe. One night the great Italian soprano Adelina Patti visited him, who did not want to leave the country without spending a few hours in that authentic atmosphere where one of the first milongas was born.

After Hansen's death, in 1892, it had several owners, the first one being Enrique Lamarque, until, at the end of 1903, the concession of the place was granted to another immigrant: this time it was the Lombard Anselmo R. Tarana. From that moment on, "Lo de Hansen" changed its name to "Restaurante Recreo Palermo. Antiguo Hansen" or also "El café Tarana".
Tarana had five cars in which customers were taken to and from their homes free of charge (if you drink, don't drive).
The issue of whether or not the tango was danced in "Lo de Hansen" is quite controversial.

Félix Lima, en un artículo de la revista «Caras y Caretas» escribe: «Con frecuencia volaban los sifones, las copas, las botellas y las sillas. A veces tiros y puñaladas. Más de un taita pasó al otro mundo desde el escenario del Hansen en viaje directo, ‘senza tocare’ el hospital.» … «Estaba prohibido el bailongo, pero a retaguardias del caserón de Hansen, en la zona de las glorietas, tangueábase lindo, tangos dormilones, de contrabando. … » ‘La Morocha’, el tango de Saborido, tocábase vuelta a vuelta, se encontraba en el apogeo de su popularidad. La orquesta nocturna era de línea. ‘Pas’ de bandoneón. El fuelle todavía no habíase hecho presente en público. Los tangos de Bassi y Villoldo – El Incendio y El Choclo – abríanse cancha. ‘Unión Cívica’, el mejor tango del compositor Santa Cruz, también estaba de moda…». Nos referimos a la época dorada del Hansen, desde 1903 a 1908.

Alfredo Taullard en su libro «Nuestro Antiguo Buenos Aires» (Peuser, 1927) lo describe: «El Hansen tenía aspecto de merendero andaluz y cervecería alemana. Desde varias cuadras, a media noche, descubríase su ubicación por las líneas de luces de los faroles de los carruajes y los farolitos de colores que alumbraban las glorietas. En esas glorietas cenábase, entre risas y farándulas, y en el gran patio los parroquianos bebían baja un techo frondoso de glicinas y madreselvas olorosas. La orquesta tocaba milongas, polcas y valses».

En cambio, el «cajetilla» Adolfo Bioy (padre) en «Antes del 900 (Relatos)» expresa «… Allí se bailaba el tango, antes que esta danza hubiese alcanzado a estar de moda en los salones de la ciudad, allí íbamos de cuando en cuando a ejecutar nuestras cualidades de calaveras, a riesgo de incidentes con los malevos que en ese antro pululaban».

Leonardo Benarós tells us that Roberto Firpo used to say: "I played at Hansen's in 1908. Some people say that people danced. That's a lie. It was played to be heard, although maybe, one or the other one, perhaps, did some turns in a hidden gazebo", but he also says that on 16 December 1961 he interviewed Felipe Amadeo Lastra, an old breeder of criollo horses, already an octogenarian, who insisted vehemently that "at Hansen's they didn't dance. Where did they go to dance, among the trees?

Miguel Ángel Scenna, relata que Lastra, decía que “lo de Hansen, durante el día y hasta las once de la noche, era un pacífico restaurante, pero que, a partir de esa hora, empezaban a llegar los paseantes nocturnos. Si llovía, no había Hansen. En ese patio había un sinnúmero de mesas de mármol de forma rectangular y basamento de hierro, por lo tanto eran bastante pesadas y difíciles de mover. Circundándolo, había glorietas con enrejado pintado de verde. A la hora mencionada, empezaban a llegar en carruajes, los parroquianos que, desde que descendían de ellos, lo hacían entre policías uniformados y pesquisas en gran cantidad, ya que, de no ser así, todas las noches, aquello hubiera resultado un campo de Agramante. La concurrencia estaba integrada por «compadritos» y “gaviones”. También concurrían “niños bien” y escasos comerciantes con veleidades de juerguistas, lo mismo que ganaderos que se tomaban vacacioncitas. A Jorge Newbery nunca lo vimos allí; él era deportista. En ese local no se bailaba. Estaba prohibido, como en todos los sitios públicos”.

Unbelievable but real

El famoso compositor Ángel Villoldo, creador de éxitos como «La morocha» o la música de «El choclo», estrenó «El Esquinazo» en el Hansen. Cada noche, cuando se tocaba esta pieza, los asistentes marcaban el ritmo aplaudiendo. El entusiasmo iba creciendo y a los aplausos se sumaba un leve golpeteo sobre las mesas. Luego taconeaban sobre el suelo. El público aumentaba la temperatura con esta milonga y pedían bises: llegaron a tocarse siete veces en una misma noche. El golpeteo rítmico que acompañaba al “endiablado tango”, como lo definió Pintín Castellanos, pianista y compositor uruguayo, creció hasta convertirse en golpes de vasos, copas y hasta sillas que volaban por el local, Tarana, cansado ya de tantos destrozos hizo poner un cartel que decía: “Terminantemente prohibida la ejecución del tango El esquinazo. Se ruega prudencia en tal sentido”.

In 1908 the business was transferred to the Payot and Giardino company, who managed it until 1912, the same year as Joaquín S de Anchorena's mayoralty, when the café was closed and demolished. And so ended "Hansen's" and with it, an era and a way of life that will never return.

En 1937 el compositor de tango y director de cine Manuel Romero presentó la película «Los muchachos de antes no usaban gomina», con el inolvidable actor Florencio Parravicini (como Ponce), donde las escenas transcurren en gran parte en «Lo de Hansen». Además, compuso el tango «Tiempos Viejos», con música de Francisco Canaro (1926), y que dice:

Do you remember, brother, the blonde Mireya
that I removed the handsome Rivera at Hansen's?
I almost killed myself one night for her,
and today she is a poor ragged beggar...!
Do you remember, brother, how beautiful she was?
A wheel was formed to see her dance!
When I see her so old in the street,
I turn my face away and start to cry...

It is not clear whether the blonde Mireya existed, but there is no doubt that she embodied the women who went to the Hansen's to meet men, all dressed up and wearing expensive jewellery.
The "chupping-house" of Palermo, as the journalist Félix Lima defined it, accompanied the initial growth of the Tres de Febrero park as a place of recreation for the porteños, becoming a landmark in the history of Buenos Aires.

Compilation of texts and images: El arcón de la historia; La Nación; ultimatanda.it; Historia del tango; cafecontado.com; acciontv.com.ar