Few places conjure up Mexico City’s mix of vibrant style, outstanding gastronomy, rich history and bustling street life. Post-pandemic, that blend has gone into overdrive, with new museums featuring the sweep of Mexican art, a panoply of restaurants and bars, and an expanding fashion scene that embraces traditional craft. You can shop for leather bags and ponchos, sample local craft beers and join jazz fans for a concert in a cosy club. Amid the buzz, it’s also worth seeking out the secrets of the Historic Center, where travellers can discover hidden murals, explore an ancient market’s warrens and immerse themselves in the city’s layers and incongruities.
ITINERARY
Friday
3pm | Go back in time
Guillermo Tovar de Teresa was a self-taught historian and eccentric who wrote prodigiously about Mexican art of the colonial period and the 19th century. Now his house, a 1911 mansion in Colonia Roma that he meticulously restored, has been turned into a museum, featuring pieces from his collections of art, furniture, ceramics and books. Many of the rooms remain as he decorated them before his death in 2013, crammed with portraits of the emerging bourgeoisie of newly independent Mexico, devotional paintings illustrating the exuberant religiosity of New Spain and elaborate marquetry furniture. A magnificent crystal mirror reflects the entry hall, antique ironwork adorns the bedroom and Mexican landscapes by the 19th-century British painter Daniel Thomas Egerton line the patio hallway. Entry is free.
4.30pm | Shop local
Emerging Mexico-based designers are drawing their inspiration from the country’s imagery and architectural forms, while emphasising sustainability and fair prices for craftspeople. Boutiques showcasing local fashion are clustered in Colonia Juarez along the quiet Marsella and Havre streets. Designers Francisco Cancino and Cynthia Buttenklepper share a flagship store and adapt traditional silhouettes and textiles in deep Mexican colours (Cancino’s linen dresses from 4300 pesos, or about NZ$350, Buttenklepper’s leather ponchos from 11,000 pesos). Mr Fox sells elegant leather bags (large totes, 3700 pesos) and accessories. At Vera, classic Mexican weaving techniques and embroidery are updated into a joyful collection of tops, dresses and bags. Nothing is sacred in JPEG’s irreverent designs, not even the Virgin of Guadalupe, whose image is stamped on its shirts.
7pm | Taste craft beer and then do dinner, Roma style
Craft beers have taken off in Mexico. Local brewery Monstruo de Agua has opened a bright, plant-filled new taproom in Colonia Condesa. Order a small tasting glass (from 45 pesos) of stout flavored with fig and sugar cane, or maybe a white I.P.A. produced with agave syrup. Accompany your beer with esquite criollo (100 pesos), a sophisticated take on a classic corn street snack. In nearby Roma, Meroma’s intimate dining room offers local ingredients accented with unexpected touches, like quail marinated with harissa (dinner for two without wine, about 2000 pesos). And for a taste of the city’s new wine scene, try Vigneron, a Roma bar and restaurant that spotlights small producers in France, Spain, Mexico and Italy (glasses from 185 pesos).
10pm | Step to a salsa beat
Mama Rumba is an unassuming salsa club in Roma that has been around for three decades and remains loyal to its winning formula. Expert and aspiring dancers are all welcome to sway and spin to the Cuban house band, Charanga One. A DJ gets the rhythm going before the musicians take the stage at 11pm. Arrive early to practice your moves and snag a table where you can nurse a mojito or a margarita (110 pesos) between sets. If you’re feeling shy, sit upstairs and watch the musicians and dancers from the balcony. Cover charge is 120 pesos.
Saturday
9.30am| Visit Mexico’s oldest market
Spend the day in and around the Historic Centre beginning with La Merced, the market that dates back to the Aztecs. It’s intimidating, both for its size and insularity. Street crime is a problem, so approach it with a guide who knows its passageways and vendors. Eat Mexico offers a 3-1/2-hour food tour in English. At Senora Edith’s stall, try pre-Hispanic delicacies of toasted grasshoppers (chapulines) and ants (chicatanas), along with tiny freshwater fish and shrimp. Senora Balbina offers her sophisticated poblano and pipian moles on a blue corn tamale. The tour ends at Roldan 37, a traditional Mexican restaurant converted from an old chile-drying warehouse. Other tours in English: photojournalist Keith Dannemiller leads photography tours of various neighbourhoods (NZ$203 for a half-day); writer David Lida designs custom tours (NZ$210 to $466).
2pm | Seek out hidden murals
The murals in the Abelardo L. Rodriguez market, a few minutes walk northeast of the giant Zocalo, the main square, were painted by students of Diego Rivera, among them Marion and Grace Greenwood, sisters from New York. Suffused with passion for social justice, the sisters’ murals, depicting the exploitation of farmworkers and miners, are alongside the stairway and first-floor landing at the market’s northeast corner. On the same landing is Isamu Noguchi’s 72-foot-long cement and brick mural, History as Seen from Mexico in 1936. At the nearby Baroque Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso are early examples of the century-old Mexican muralist movement. Jose Clemente Orozco’s frescoes cover three storeys on the main patio’s north side and capture the anguish and hope of post-Revolutionary Mexico (entry 50 pesos).
4pm | Explore Mexican art
Two more 18th-century landmarks recently opened with collections of Mexican art in and around the Historic Centre. The works at the Foro Museo Valparaíso, in a former palace now owned by a bank, encompass colonial portraits, including one of the writer Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz that was painted after her death in 1695, 19th-century landscapes and images of iconic Mexican figures. The 20th-century galleries feature Diego Rivera’s 1942 Calla Lily Vendor and paintings by the surrealists Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington (free entry). A short car ride away is the Kaluz Museum, which showcases a private collection within the renovated Antiguo Hospicio de Tomas de Villanueva. Organised thematically, the display sets up a dialogue between earlier Mexican paintings and 20th-century interpretations. (Entry 60 pesos for Mexicans, 90 pesos for foreigners.)
6pm | Sample pulque or mezcal
Explore a trio of nearby bars south of Alameda Park. At Pulquería Las Duelistas, tourists and locals squeeze in together to drink pulque, the pre-Hispanic fermented agave sap (beware its viscous consistency) that has become an acquired taste of the hipster crowd (plain blanco pulque, 15 pesos a glass; curado is flavoured with oat, celery or guava, 30 pesos a glass). A short walk away is Tio Pepe, an old-fashioned cantina at the edge of Chinatown where the red vinyl booths, low hum of conversation and old photographs beckon you to stay and work through the voluminous drinks list. Bosforo is a mezcaleria tucked behind red curtains and steel doors that doesn’t advertise — but everyone seems to find it anyway after its 7pm. opening time.
8.30pm | Head to Juarez
After the commotion of the Historic Centre, go to Juarez for a quiet dinner at Amaya. Unlike some of the buzzier stalwarts of the city’s creative dining scene in Roma, Amaya is where locals linger over wine and conversation. It is chef Jair Tellez’s second restaurant in the city (his first is Merotoro), and his idiosyncratic take on Baja-Med cuisine is consistently excellent. The varied share-style menu, which emphasises local and seasonal ingredients, includes a fish ceviche tostada topped with fried squid, gnocchi with beef ragout, and braised lamb with roasted vegetables. The high-ceilinged dining room is accented with a colourful mural and vivid floor tiles. The restaurant serves natural wines, which Tellez imports himself. Dinner for two without wine, about 1700 pesos.
10.30pm | Listen to live jazz
In a city that seems to resound with the beat of Latin music, live jazz was once hard to find. Not anymore. At the spacious Parker & Lenox bar in Juarez, which has low lighting, lounge seating and original cocktails (from 170 to 240 pesos), immerse yourself in the music up front, or simply appreciate the vibe from farther back (cover charge up to 200 pesos, reservations recommended). The smaller space at Jazzatlan Capital in Roma attracts a dedicated crowd for an evening that’s all about the music in an intimate setting (cover up to 400 pesos, reservations required).
Sunday
10am | Enjoy breakfast with Barragán
Head south for breakfast at the Tetetlan cultural center in the Pedregal neighborhood. It opened five years ago to complement the restoration of a private home, Casa Pedregal, designed by the great Mexican architect Luis Barragan at the end of the 1940s. Constructed around the volcanic stone walls of the house’s original stables, Tetetlan is a library of art and architecture books, an exhibition space, a shop and a restaurant. Breakfast options include chilaquiles (fried corn tortillas in salsa), and scrambled eggs with escamoles, or crunchy ant larvae (295 pesos). Much of the produce comes from the floating gardens along the vestiges of Aztec canals in the far-south Xochimilco district. Tours of Casa Pedregal in English must be booked ahead by email (500 pesos for Mexicans, 800 pesos for foreigners).
Noon | See a museum that pushes artistic boundaries
A short car ride away, the University Museum of Contemporary Art, known as the MUAC, hosts exhibitions from around the world, curates its own shows and collects the work of Mexican contemporary artists. Works by the French avant-garde artist Ben Vautier are on display through April and a survey of Latin American activist art and interventions opens November 26 and runs through May 2023 (entry 40 pesos). The museum is housed in a striking glass building with a sloping facade designed by Mexican architect Teodoro Gonzalez de Leon, on the campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The giant university complex is itself a Unesco World Heritage site, recognized for its mid-20th-century combination of modernist architecture and pre-Hispanic iconography, particularly its central library.
KEY STOPS
La Merced market is the city’s oldest and an introduction to traditional foods, including toasted insects.
Mama Rumba is a salsa club for experts and novices alike to dance late into the night.
Museo Foro Valparaiso is in a magnificent 18th-century palace with a sweeping collection of Mexican art.
Tetetlan is a cultural centre that includes a restaurant, exhibition space, art library and shop, is a place where you could spend hours.
WHERE TO EAT
Almacen Monstruo de Agua is a taproom for a Mexico City craft brewery that makes creative use of local ingredients.
Meroma is a small restaurant in Roma that offers fresh Mexican ingredients with a twist.
Vigneron offers a curated wine selection from vineyards in France, Spain, Mexico and Italy.
Tio Pepe is a 150-year-old cantina where the pace slows to a crawl.
Amaya serves Baja-Med cuisine and natural wines.
WHERE TO STAY
Casa Goliana is an eight-room boutique bed-and-breakfast in an elegantly restored mansion in Roma Norte. Each room is furnished with local designs. Weekend rates for a double room start at 6495 pesos, or NZ$520.
Casa de la Luz Hotel Boutique is in a restored colonial palace on a square in the heart of the Historic Centre. The 18 rooms feature tiled floors and remnants of the structure’s ancient walls. Doubles from 2590 pesos.
Hotel Casa Gonzalez is found in a former grand house opposite the British Embassy in Colonia Cuauhtemoc. It has rooms centred around leafy patios. Doubles from about 1300 pesos.
Search for a short-term rental in Colonia Roma. Although it’s the city’s trendiest neighbourhood, its back streets still evoke the 1970s world captured by the Oscar-winning movie Roma, particularly in Roma Sur.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
