Café de Tacuba

The Café de Tacuba is a 110 year-old restaurant in the City Center. It’s arguably Mexico City’s most famous historic restaurant. Unlike in other world-capitals, this one is still warm, inviting, and affordable. It opened in 1912 after a short time as a dairy. Prior to that, the building was one of the Center’s famous palatial homes, this one built in the 17th century.

The restaurant faces the Library of Congress of the Union. That’s in the old Poor Clare’s Convent chapel. It’s just across already drop-dead famous Calle Tacuba, with more historic sites than some countries. In fact, the rear of the present-day restaurant was once part of the Hospital del Divino Salvador, a major hospital for women.

But the restaurant has had an exciting 20th century, too. The restaurant founder, Dionisio Mollinedo, came to the City from the state of Tabasco and opened soon after arriving. Just ten years later, Diego Rivera and new bride Guadalupe Marín held their wedding reception and banquet here. That’s almost before anything else in Rivera’s long life. It’s often said that every President of Mexico has eaten here. In 1936, the governor-elect of Veracruz, Manlio Fabio Altamirano Flores, was even assassinated here.

The restaurant is also replete with colonial-period paintings. “The Girl in a Red Dress” hangs not far from a portrait of José de la Borda. He actually lived nearby in the Casa Borda. Wednesdays through Sundays, diners are still serenaded by wandering musicians. The Café de Tacuba serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Menu

Hours: Daily, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.