I just got back from Mexico City. We were here from Friday evening until Wednesday morning and I loved every minute of it! I figured I’d try and write a trip report. The short story is that the people are amazing, the food is fantastic, the art, culture and architecture are beautiful, and it is super cheap. I can’t believe it is only a 4-hour flight from the Bay Area! This will likely be my go-to long weekend destination from now on. We stayed in Condesa, which is the hipster neighborhood and borders Roma, where many of the bars and nightclubs are located.
Fossil was kind enough to meet up with us on Saturday afternoon. He’s a lovely guy - pretty much what you would expect from his posts. We chatted a bit about the cultural differences between the US and Mexico, what its like to live in Mexico City and we squeezed in a bit of poker talk as well. We went for a drink and then walked down the Paseo de la Reforma to Chapultepec park. He gave us some good advice about the things we wanted to see in Mexico City, and suggested some other things we might want to check out while we were in town. Thanks for making the time for us Fossil
!
On Saturday night we had a fantastic meal at Agua & Sal in Polanco, which is the ritziest neighborhood in Mexico City. The owner’s brother runs a restaurant in the Mission in SF, so when he found out we were from the Bay Area we were treated like princesses. This was one of our best meals of the trip - two glasses of wine each, a huge bowl of ceviche, and almost a whole grilled octopus ran to $60. We then moved to the Roma neighborhood and hit up a cool Mezcal bar (La Clandestina), before moving to a bar that had been recommended to us before coming on the trip (Gin-Gin). I was not impressed by Gin-Gin – it was full of pretentious
gringos and so we decided to bounce and found a cool cocktail spot where we had a couple of Mezcal cocktails (La Larinda). By now it was midnight and we were nicely buzzed to head back home, but down the block we pass a line of dudes waiting to go through an unmarked door (I later find out its called Terraza Roma). I can hear some pumping music coming from upstairs and so I head to the front of the line and ask the bouncer whether we can go in. He looks me up and down from head to toe and turns and says something to his colleague who also looks me up and down from head to toe.
Uno momento. He goes through the door and returns with a third guy.
El jefe looks me up and down from head to toe, says something to the bouncer and it looks like we’re in. I gotta admit…I did have some second thoughts about following three huge Latinos through an unmarked doorway in Mexico City. My friend has a ‘WTF Jo?’ look on her face (which is not uncommon
) but all that Mezcal had given us some courage/stupidity so in we went.
I try and figure out how much the cover (or doorman bribe) will be.
Cuanto cuesta? No charge (huh?) but they want to go through our purses (ah!). They confiscate my Ibuprofen (ok, a bottle of white pills might not be the smartest thing to try and take into a nightclub), but otherwise we’re in for free. The place is packed and the music is fantastic. The whole club is on a rooftop terrace and we’re the only
gringas in the place. We make our way to the bar and get a couple of tequilla shots for 100 pesos each ($5). I give them a 500 peso note which the barman gives to someone else, who promptly disappears. After waiting about 10 minutes for my change and not being able to flag down the barman, I figure that’s where the shakedown happens, and we head back to the dancefloor. In fact, it turns out the place is bottle service only, so the bar was not really setup for selling individual shots. Bottles seem to get added to some tab that gets settled somewhere else (tbh I didn’t ever really figure out the logistics of the thing but slips of paper seem to be being exchanged rather than actual cash). The bar staff sold us the shots as a favor and were then flummoxed when they needed to give us change. The barman eventually finds me on the dancefloor and hands me my change with a smile, and I give him a 100 peso tip. We have no problem buying shots for the rest of the night
. It seems like Mexicans go out in big groups, usually consisting of both men and women. Its pretty unusual for two women to be in a club on their own. This meant that we could dance with relatively little interference, but when we did get hit on by a couple of guys, a posse of angry Latinas was close behind and dragged them back to their group. We danced for a couple of hours. The music was mainly deep house, with a bit of regaetton thrown in. I saw a couple of dudes making out with one another which surprised me - the city is much more open-minded than I’d thought it would be.
After a couple of hours, we call it a night. As I’m heading back downstairs to the exit one of the bouncers, steps out and blocks my way. Are you kidding - the shakedown happens on the way out? He reaches into his pocket and hands me back my Ibuprofen.
Buenos noches senorita! Buenos noches senor! We wander back to our apartment, but not before stopping for some tacos and tecate, and I eventually get to bed around four am.
To be continued…