The Tango Cafe: A Taste of Argentina in Pittsburgh

The casual visitor may see Tango Café as a unique neighborhood spot to get a strong espresso with a delectable pastry, but serving coffee and sweets is the secondary mission at Tango Café. “We call this place a café tematico. It’s a place that gathers people that have interest in culture –literature, music, and language,” says owner Liliana Petruy who hails from Argentina.

Which is why you’ll find Argentinean specialties like máte tea, café cortado and the divine submarino (a small chocolate bar submerged in a glass of steamed milk) along with soft, warm, homemade empanadas, filled with beef, corn, spinach or cheese. The real thing.

Nestled among a movie theater, Oriental grocery store, pizza shop and karate studio on Squirrel Hill’s Forward Avenue, this authentic Argentinean café is a magnetic meeting place for bringing Latin American and Argentinean cultures alive.
   
Influencing World Views
“I’ve really learned a different way of looking at the world from Liliana,” says Patricia Wysor passionately. She sits with her Spanish classmates, around a table cluttered with empty coffee cups, wine bottles and Spanish dictionaries. “I just came back from Spain and I went to Argentina last year, because I’ve been here. It’s why I danced the flamenco when I went to Madrid. I would have never done it otherwise,” says Wysor.

European influence on Argentina, particularly French culture, has helped to make Argentinean cafés a prominent place to socialize and celebrate culture, according to Petruy. Fittingly, as a native Argentinean, Petruy hoped to maintain an authentic atmosphere at Tango Café.

The main difference between a typical coffeehouse in America and Argentina isn’t about a decaf latte with soymilk, but more about the people sipping those decaf lattes with soymilk.

Petruy describes a common American coffeehouse culture that she calls “Starbuck’s style.” “People get a coffee to go, to get energy to keep working. For us [in Argentina], the café is a social place. You don't see people alone. We talk; what is in? What is going on? We discuss a lot about politica. If there is a law in the congress, everybody talks about it in the café.”

Whether the desire for a more social and culturally stimulating coffeehouse had been an unfulfilled yearning in Pittsburgh prior to Tango Café or whether Petruy helped to ignite that fire, the cultural mecca that Tango Café has become continues to grow.

Espanol Por Favor
On any given day, visitors will find groups laughing, drawing, singing and speaking español in this living room-size café. Approximately 45 Spanish speakers make up the lively group that meets every Saturday afternoon for the free tertulia – an open Spanish conversation/social group.

The tertulia group was formed a few months after the café opened in December 2002, when Spanish learners started to ask if they could practice their Spanish with Petruy. She decided to schedule a specific time for people to come together to chat.

Each week, Petruy estimates that between seven and 14 people attend the tertulia. Some of the very first participants still return.  

This group became instrumental in helping Liliana’s cultural mission to blossom. During the tertulia meetings, people asked for grammar help. That developed into an additional class to serve as a Spanish grammar workshop. The enthusiasm spread. Now Liliana hosts the tertulia and teaches six Spanish classes in Tango Café.

With a personalized style of teaching, Liliana creates all the lesson plans and exercises.
“I don't like to use textbooks. Every group is different and they have different needs, so you have to go with them,” she says of her teaching method.

“It’s a different model of learning than a university model. She may be on to something,” says intermediate Spanish student Barbara Davis of Squirrel Hill.

One big difference between learning Spanish in a traditional school versus learning with Petruy is obvious to observers, even without understanding any Spanish.

“Liliana really pushes us [to speak], she doesn’t let us just sit back,” says John Young of the North Side, who has been enjoying classes for over two years at Tango Café.
Even the beginner class that started in January was talking in full sentences after less than two months. Intermediate classes can converse about politics and recipes.

“You learn [Spanish], plus you have the social occasion. I showed up today and told everyone my troubles. Then they told me theirs,” says Wysor. Davis echoed a similar sentiment about a strong sense of community and friendship at Tango Café. “There’s something about this class. To me, we feel essential to each other in some way. It's a very deep feeling that I’ve never had in another class.”

Other groups that meet or have met in the café include a knitting circle, a writing group, a French class, a poetry reading group and an English as a second language conversation group.

Anita Zuberi, a member of the Sunday knitting circle, says that she enjoys coming to Tango Café because of the casual, informal atmosphere. “It’s quiet,” she says, as she concentrates on the dipping and diving needles in front of her.

Silencio o Musico?
As one may expect on a Sunday afternoon, it was quiet that day, but the liveliest time to be at the café may be those times you would least expect any action. One rainy weekday night, this writer was invited to participate in an after-hours Latin jam session. Who could refuse? An ethnically diverse group of about ten musicians gathered with three guitars, one tuba, two wooden box drums, a morocco and beautiful Spanish voices. Nothing was rehearsed. There was no audience, no recording devices, but the beats and the chords pulsing through the room had everyone smiling, swaying and tapping their feet as if they were serenading the world.

A circuitous route
With five successful years under her belt and a growing interest in her Spanish classes, it is easy to imagine Petruy as an experienced business owner or linguist, but in Argentina, she was neither.
    
“I did many things,” says Petruy modestly. The list includes journalist, directing a music institute, playing the organ, running a greenhouse and teaching at a university during her life in Argentina.

A year after arriving in Pittsburgh, she opened Tango Café as a “family project,” with her two daughters, Alejandra and Liliana. Her inspiration? “It always was two things: cultural and coffee. If it were just coffee, I wouldn't be here,” she says.

Lucky for Pittsburgh, Petruy is still here.

A frequent visitor and active Spanish student, Young strongly believes in Tango Café. “I think this café adds a lot of flavor to Squirrel Hill and the city. It’s tremendous.”

The casual visitor will soon take note. They can start with the menu: Pastries made with dulce de leche (“sweet milk” that tastes like caramel) are some of the uncommon and delicious creations at Tango Cafe, including cañoncito (Crunchy cones with dulce de leche inside and chocolate on top), meringue balls covered with dulce de leche, and other chocolate or sweet treats. A taste of Argentina? Delicioso.

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Captions:

Liliana and Liliana

Tango cafe

Yerba Mate, a traditional infusion

Tango artwork

Gracie has been coming to the cafe since she was a puppy

All photographs copyright Brian Cohen