Omm – Buenos Aires
Omm
Honduras 5656 (between Fitz Roy and Bonpland)
http://www.ommbuenosaires.com.ar/
Drink Mixing Area, Omm
All roads lead to Omm. I know, it sounds a bit kitschy, but in reality during our visit we ended up at Omm for part of just about every evening. It is prominently featured in the guide books as a cool place to hang out and sip on a, literally, hand made cocktail. We walked by it a couple of times as the outside is so unpresupposing that we were sure this could not actually be the place until we were able to make out the vague lettering of “Omm” in the window.
The space inside is very small with about six stools at the bar and seating for about twelve other people at tables. It has a sidewalk patio which I guess would seat about another twelve people. The décor is decidedly minimalist with very low lighting and candles spread around on the tables. We were a bit taken back by the understated nature of such a highly recommended bar. But when I saw the space reserved for mixing cocktails I knew this place takes drink preparation seriously.
Our new instant friend, Roxy, was mixing drinks and based on what I saw I decided to do something I almost would never do anywhere else and allowed her to make me a drink from the recommended list, called a “Glam”, which was a frothy iced-based concoction with lots of liquor and fresh peaches and who knows what else. Will opted for our usual, a vodka with pink grapefruit juice. Unfortunately my Mexican influenced Spanish let me down when ordering and after some confusion the owner of the bar figured out that “toronja” was grapefruit and he proceeded to personally juice two whole grapefruits right in front of us in order to make the drink. He told me that they only use fresh ingredients in their cocktails. Amen to that!
Life at Omm only got better after that. We were able to add Daniel Cabrejas, the owner of Omm, to our list of Argentine friends. We were visiting during the slow time of the year for tourism so he had some time to chat about Buenos Aires, Argentine politics, recommend bars and restaurants, and do what all good people do; we bitched and moaned about our respective countries.
Burschetta and a Glass of Malbec
Throughout our nightly gabfests Roxy would let us taste all the leftovers from drinks that she had made for customers (I think she did it on purpose a lot of the time). We were also able to sample an array of tapas from the kitchen at Omm which are too many to mention, but clearly a lot of thought went into their development and preparation. The most exciting thing is that we were able to see that everything put on the plate was completely fresh that day.
On our last evening Daniel let us in on a little secret. Over the years he has been collecting vintage Argentine wines, buying out restaurants and bars that were going out of business. I was able to tour his “cave” which ironically is upstairs and the array of wines is impressive with vintages going back to the 1980’s and 1990’s. He has a small table upstairs where he hosts tasting parties for clients. Had we known about this before the last night I think we would have roped about four other people into a wine tasting night. We plan on doing so when we return.
Even if you just go to Omm for one of Roxy’s drinks (by the way there is one named after her, “The Roxy,” which is delicious) or maybe you have a little bit of time for some late afternoon or early evening tapas, I can highly recommend the place. And if you are lucky enough to have a chat with Daniel Cabrejas you will get the best tour of Buenos Aires without ever leaving the bar. I’ll drink to that!