Mexico City Scene Report
Tacos, mezcal, live jazz and more!
Mexico City has a special place in our hearts. Tiffany and I met there in 2018 and have continued to return there 1-2x a year with the exception of 2020. The cheerful tree lined streets and inexhaustible amount of delicious bites are a siren song to us again and again.
We continued to peel the onion and make new discoveries while returning to old favorites.
In an effort to try something new, we went on a sunrise boat tour of the canals of Xochimilco with Arca Tierra and the food blogger The Curious Mexican. The canals are what remains of a vast water transport system built by the Aztecs. Xochimilco was an agricultural area but shifted into more of tourist destination during the 1968 Olympics.
Xochimilco in the afternoon is a raucous place with hundreds of trajineras, colorfully painted flat bottomed boats that seat up to 15 people. Each boat is blasting music, people are drinking giant micheladas and smaller boats are selling snacks to everyone. At sunrise we cruised through the tranquil waters to Arca Tierra’s farm, where we had a gourmet breakfast from the folks at Forte using ingredients grown a few feet away. It was a calm & meditative way to see the canals, learn about its history, and see Mexico City in a new light.
Like Lisbon, it is safe to say that the secret is out on Mexico City for the global traveler so we tried to “walk softly,” and limit our gringo footprint as much possible. At the excellent Baltra Bar in Condesa it was a more than a little cringey to hear Americans walk up to the host and say “Can I have a table for 2” without any attempt to speak Spanish. Certainly not expecting everyone to be fluent, but I do think making the effort to learn a grab bag of helpful phrases can dial down the entitlement quite a bit. We heard from locals that they’ve seen prices go up across the board as restaurant owners feel like they can cater prices to their growing foreign clientele. At one of my favorite special occasion restaurants, the higher-end Em, it was tough to see that their prices had approximately doubled since I went there in October 2021 (while portion sizes had gone down). If you are planning to go to Em, which I still very much recommend, going a la carte vs. tasting menu is now 110% the successful path forward. Our friends went to Em a la carte and their bill was less than 1/2 of our tasting menu with much more food to be had.
As always, some of the best bites we had were right on the street or at local taquerias. The weekend only quesabirria tacos at Tacos Don Juan achieved a level of creeeespiness I never thought possible and their bright green salsa verde is the perfect pairing. When I think about the “Salt - Fat - Acid - Heat,” nothing quite brings this into harmony like a Mexico City taco. The bright citrus of the Don Juan salsa cuts right through fat of the Birria and it goes together like Hall & Oates.
Mexico City continues to be a fantastic place to see people writing love letters to corn. A great example is the blue corn concha at Enrique Olivera’s Mulino
”El Pujol.” In fact, if you want to capture the magic of Pujol, but don’t have the budget to throw down for his super high end experience, Mulino “El Pujol” is a perfect alternative. Their carrot & mole tamale felt just as elevated as something you’d get on a tasting menu.
Meanwhile, Expendio de Maiz's tasting menu continues to inspire. I love their format which basically entails serving you food until you tap out and say “I’m full! No mas.”
Outside of Mulino “El Pujol”, there’s a man that pulls up on his bike selling basket tacos (tacos de canasta) who has a fervent following. Within minutes of arrival, he was surrounded, with one gentleman even pulling a quick illegal U-turn to park in front of the bike to load up on tacos. The tacos are about 40 cents each and come in flavors like chicken tinga, chicharron, and frijole. At 4 tacos, I had by far the least amount of tacos, with the fellas around me taking down 6-8 tacos each. A lovely tradition was that as each new person approached the bike to order tacos, they greeted everyone with a communal “Buen Provecho.” I recommend watching the Taco Chronicles episode on Netflix that tells the story of the tacos de canasta.
This is a good time to pay homage to the appetites of the Mexican businessmen that I witnessed in Mexico City. The most popular restaurant we saw by far was the seafood restaurant in Roma Norte, Mi Compa Chavas. It was pandemonium outside. The table next to ours took down literal pounds of ceviche and aguachile, giant oysters, and tuna tostadas, washing it all down with beers & sips of blanco tequila. It seemed never-ending and they still had room for dessert. Witnessing the hollow leg and gastronomic fortitude of the locals was a common occurrence everywhere we went.
If you are having trouble getting into Gabriela Cámara’s Contramar (still a tough table after all these years), head into the Centro to her sister restaurant Caracol de Mar, where you can still tuck into her flagship bites: tuna tostada, red & green grilled fish etc…. Everything is exceptional. If you make it to Centro, you need to stop into one of the old cantinas for a Bandera (literal translation: flag). A Bandera (the beverage) is a traditional method of sipping blanco tequila (I prefer Herradura), lining up the tequila with a shot of lime juice and shot of spicy tomato juice (sangrita) to make the white, green, and red of the Mexican flag.
Cantina “Tio Pepe” is probably my favorite. Notably, they didn’t allow women or cops inside until 1982! They were ACAB before it was trendy. Also in Centro is the vibey mezcal bar Bosforo which is usually playing some obscure ambient techno and serving up a deep list of single agave mezcales at reasonable prices. If these drinkable Mexican flags and mezcaless call for more bites, you should head over to Los Cocuyos. Some of my favorite tacos in CDMX, they cook a wide variety of cuts of pork (cheek, eye, brain) in their bubbling caldron, called a choricera. FWIW - Taqueria Ramirez in Greenpoint, Brooklyn does a very good approximation of this experience with their suadero, longaniza, and tripa.
One of the coolest set ups in Mexico City we saw were the multi-faceted happenings at Choza in Roma Norte. Purposely avoiding Google Maps (but active on IG) they give off a too cool for school vibe, but both the food & service are impeccable. They don’t take reservations and are only open for dinner 3-9 on Saturday and Sunday. On Monday, the owner has a listening party and plays vinyl (experimental Jazz, Nigerian psyche rock etc…) on their hi fi system. The place looks like Hansel’s loft from Zoolander and seems like it would be corny, but it all works.
Probably because the Thai-Mexican food is so damn good and the reasonably priced wine & mezcal make you want to stick around for a while. When we ate there, we ended up hanging for almost four hours, playing cards and drinking wine. We were also lucky enough to come back for a jazz concert a few nights later where a gentle mix of gringos and locals of all ages respectfully sat for a concert/jam session. Fun fact: the owner was on a junior chess team with our friend Robert in elementary school which is how we found this gem.
We were lucky to stay with our good friends Matt & Elena and with a larger group had the motivation to make it down to San Angel Inn for their delicious margaritas and the thriving market nearby. The restaurant sits in a sweeping hacienda dating back to the 1600s and was the launching point for the neighborhood of San Angel. A margarita at San Angel Inn comes with its own tiny silver shaker sitting in its own smol little ice bucket. This means that every sip of margarita remains ice cold and there’s nothing wrong with that amigos. The market has incredible crafts and it took a lot of willpower not to buy anything knowing we had 3 more months ahead of us on the road.
Much like other global hubs for the nomadic (Lisbon, Medellin etc…) it will be interesting to see how Mexico City evolves over the coming years. You can’t blame people for seeking out Mexico City’s exceptional weather (it was 75 and sunny everyday we were there) and gourmet bites, but you can hope that people make an effort to be gentle by speaking the language or generally being chill. Being chill is not a policy solution (as much as I’d like it to be) so bigger lasting changes will need to come from the city or federal government. Portugal recently did away with its “Golden Visa” after seeing the extreme impact it had on its housing and I wouldn’t be surprised if Mexico City enacted more stringent rules around Airbnb. Bloomberg reported in December 2022 that this was already on the table. Currently, CDMX is the 6th largest short-term rentals market in the Americas.
At this point, coming to Mexico City is like meeting up with an old friend. We learn what’s changed and reminisce on shared memories. If you are planning on going to Mexico City please get in touch as there is so much more to share!
Halfway through I thought I was reading CN Traveler or NY Times 36 hours in...
Hell of a recap, amigo! #NBB