What do actor Susan Sarandon, U2 frontman Bono, Argentine soccer ace Diego Maradona and a host of other celebrities (Manu Chao, Robert Duvall, Francis Ford Coppola, among others) have in common? They have all eaten at El Obrero – a small restaurant in the humble neighbourhood of La Boca in Buenos Aires, which has become the Holy Grail for meat-eaters in the know.
El Obrero (The Workman) is such a well-kept secret and is in such a dicy area, it is generally avoided by well-off Argentinians. The personalities whose snapshots adorn the walls are alerted to it by word of mouth. "We were told about it by [German film director] Wim Wenders," says Giada Colagrande, Italian film director and wife of American actor Willem Dafoe.
The secret is the superior-quality beef. Served on chipped plates with bent forks, it outclasses even the prime cuts served at the classy Buenos Aires steakhouses that many tourists throng to, and at about £7.50 a steak, is far cheaper.
El Obrero opened in 1910, catering for the thousands of Italian labourers arriving in Argentina. "They met here for drinks over a game of cards," says manager and waiter Guillermo Vita, whose father-in-law bought the establishment in 1954. "It's still the same building from 1910. And we still have the same tables, the same chairs from 1954."
Vita says it's not just the steak that is the key to the restaurant's popularity. "It's because of the personal dedication," he says. "The waiters here, and I'm one of them, greet every arrival as a new member of the family."
