Inside, cocktails and love.
The earliest printed use of the word cocktail was in 1803 and the first "cocktail party" took place in St. Louis, Missouri in May 1917. It consisted of dinner guests arriving an hour early for dinner and using the time to mingle and exchange pleasantries and introductions over a couple of aperitifs which prepaired them for the "silence of the meal", where it was customary and polite to refrain from talking while eating.
Although there is much mention of distilled spirits like whiskey, gin, rum and vodka in Buenos Aires of the 20s and 30s, there is hardly any recorded data of cocktails involving such hard liquer. The most common cocktails of the period appear to have involved the mixing of sparkling white wine (or champagne) with bitters, such as Fernet Branca, and fruit juices, particularly pineapple. Later on, with the advent of soft drinks, the juices were replaced by "Coke", a mixture which has remained quite fashionable among the younger crowd till this very day.
Pernod advertisements from the 1920s to the 1950s
Around the beginning of the XXth century, alcoholic beveridges with varying quantities of absinthe -- Pernod in particular -- were very fashionable in Europe and South America. In 1915, a ministerial decree passed by the French government banned the use of absinthe and for a short period of time Pernod Fils closed their doors. Soon, however, Pernod with a new formula excluding absinthe came on the market; both in Europe and South America, and once again the liqueur caught the imagination.
Earlier on, immediately to replace absinthe, a lower alcohol-content liqueur called Anisette, manufactured in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, came onto the market but never reached the consumption levels of its pastis cousin, Pernod.
As far as "love" is concerned, it would be cynical not to accept the fact that couples have met and fallen in love under all circumstances imaginable including "tango-clubs" similar to our Corrientes, 348. However, under the present circumstances and with what we know about our club we must allow Mr. Lenzi some more poetic licence with regards to his "love" and considering the time and place accept the likelihood of prostitution, i.e. of high-class prostitutes not only tolerated at 348 but actually encouraged to come and ply their trade.
Contemporary sanitary stamps of the city of Rosario.
Between the 1880s and the 1930s, all the registered prostitutes in the city of Rosario, Argentina, had to periodically visit a municipal clinic and undergo a medical examination. In the event that no trace of venereal disease was encountered during the examination, the doctor would issue the lady a "Certificate of Personal Hygiene" franked with an official 1 peso stamp. It is difficult to visualize that such a procedure would be solidly established in a secondary city like Rosario but not in the Federal District. And yet, I have not been able to find information, official or literary, about such a requirement to this point. The search continues, however!