Bar Cinzano, Valparaíso

The claim

A bar and restaurant on the Plaza Aníbal Pinto, opened in 1896 by an Italian immigrant as a grocery that poured drink when it suited, and settled since into the house where Valparaíso's tangos and boleros are sung. It closed in the pandemic in October 2020 and reopened in September 2022, and still puts singers and a piano in the room most nights.

What the records show

Spanish Wikipedia, following La Tercera's account of October 2020, records that the Italian immigrant Pipo Lima opened a business on the Plaza Aníbal Pinto in 1896 that worked as a pulpería and, now and then, as a bar; over the years it settled into being a bar and restaurant, and the Lima family held it until 1932. Pablo Varas bought it in 1978 and put a tango room upstairs, then moved the tango down and made the upper floor a dance floor. Carmen Corena began singing here in 1986 and the house recorded two albums of its own. It closed in October 2020 during the pandemic and reopened in September 2022, which Emol reported; its own site was selling tickets for live music in September 2026. No document has been read behind 1896, so the grade is C. A register was read for it on 18 September 2026 and it has no entry. Chile's Ministry of Housing and Urbanism compiles what every communal plan protects, and for the commune of Valparaíso the compilation runs to 999 buildings of historic conservation and 29 conservation zones. Neither the Plaza Aníbal Pinto nor the number 1182 appears anywhere in it. That is a gap rather than a blind spot, because the compilation lists plain commercial houses by street and number a few doors from the square: on Esmeralda at 1103-1111, 1131-1141, 1132 and 1146, and on Condell at 1227-1231, 1234, 1240 and 1260-1288. The Council of National Monuments, which keeps Chile's registers of historic monuments and of the typical zones and would be the other place to look, refused every connection on three attempts that night and two the night before, so the bar still has no reading from the national body. The compilation is the Ministry's transcription of what the communal plans say rather than a declaration of its own, and it says so on the page.

What to look for inside

Tangos and boleros sung nightly; the house has recorded two albums of its own music
Two of Franco Nero's films were shot in these rooms

Visiting

Bar Cinzano is in Valparaíso, Chile, at Plaza Aníbal Pinto 1182, Valparaíso. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.

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