Buenos Aires Cafe to open on Tuesday, October 3

Published: September 29, 2023

Author: Dave Bell

After operating food trucks and restaurants in the St. Louis area for several years, Oscar and Ainara Farina are bringing the unique flavors of Argentinian food to Greenville, IL.

Their restaurant, the Buenos Aires Café, will open Tuesday, October 3, on the first floor of the SMART Center in downtown Greenville. It will be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, serving dine-in or take-out food that includes empanadas, rice bowls, salads, and several flavors of gelato.

“We’re excited to bring our passion for Argentinian food to Greenville,” said Ainara, a native of Spain who moved to Florida at the age of 6. “This is a family operation – not a franchise – and we want people to sense the personal touch in our food. All our sauces are homemade, and our gelatos are made on-site.”

Though they knew each other in high school, Oscar and Ainara began their food adventure together while serving in the U.S. Army. Their early focus was on Argentinian food trucks, which they operated on the weekends during their military years. Ainara transitioned from the Army to a recruiting position with the Coast Guard, a job that brought them to St. Louis in 2020. She retired from active duty in 2022 and joined Oscar and their three sons in operating restaurants in the City Foundry, on Washington Avenue, and in Fairview Heights.

The staple of the new Greenville restaurant is the empanada (pictured above), a crescent-shaped pastry that can contain a variety of fillings – beef, chicken, pork sausage, vegetables, Guava fruit, or even Nutella and bananas. Also popular are Latin rice bowls topped with flank steak, shrimp, tuna, pulled pork, or chicken. Seasonal soups, salads, and sandwiches round out the menu. And for dessert, the café will offer eight flavors of homemade gelato.

“In our food, we use a lot of spices,” said Oscar, a native of LaPampa, Argentina. “But that doesn’t mean it’s always hot. We use cumin and chimichurri sauce (made from parsley, garlic, and olive oil). That gives our food a traditional Argentinian flavor. In fact, we chose the name of Buenos Aires – the capital of Argentina – to tie it to Argentinian foods. Buenos Aires is famous for its street food.”

Tuesday’s opening follows a soft opening on Wednesday, Sept. 27, at which guests were allowed a preview of the Argentinian dishes and free samples of gelato (pictured above).

Although tables are available for customers to eat in the restaurant, no table service is planned at the café. “They will order at the counter, get their own soft drinks or coffee, and then pick up their order when it is ready,” Oscar said. “It’s the same service style we offer at The Foundry.

“We’re excited to bring our passion for food and our unique flavors to a small town,” he continued. “We want to show people here that there is more to South American food than the Mexican dishes that they know. Our food is unique, and we think they’ll like it.”