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Buenos Aires, Argentina > Buenos Aires restaurants > La Academia La AcademiaAve. Callao 368 (@ Corrientes)
La Academia is a pool hall of the old fashioned no frills, no nonsense sort. It’s all about the pool, man! Behind the coffee shop in the front room awaits a large warehouse-like space with more than 24 tables. About half will stun pool sharks with their complete lack of pockets. This is not an embarrassing oversight by the manufacturer; these tables are for playing the Argentinean game, billares, which involves pushing four balls back and forth across the felt with no hope of making a pot. It’s dimly lit, slightly menacing, and all in all exactly the sort of place Paul Newman and Tom Cruise would find themselves running away from in “The Color of Money.” La Academia is open all day, every day and prices vary between $6AR and $12AR per table per hour, depending on day of the week and time of day. The Coffee shop offers the usually long list of coffees, croissants and sandwiches. There are also bottles of Qulimes for $6AR as well as a decent list of mixed drinks, including local favorites Negroni and Fernet & Coke for $12AR and $15AR respectively. Located in the heaving center of Buenos Aires’s tourist heartland, just half a block from Avenida Corrientes, La Academia is a great spot to try one’s luck against the local pool hustlers or even have a go at a game of billares or two. —La Academia review by Johan Jensen
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