Mercado Santo Domingo Las Rosas

The Mercado Santo Domingo Las Rosas is the other market in the famous colonia Pedregal de Santo Domingo. Historically one of the most underprivileged of Coyoacán neighborhoods, today the long history of traveling tianguis and street markets plays out in a couple of markets that serve as impromptu social centers and even “downtowns” for neighborhoods like this.

Established only in the 1970s, Santo Domingo residents came from the countryside in far-off Puebla, Guerrero, and Michoacán. Here, they lived in shantytowns and the worst of informal housing in a famously ramshackle and dangerous stretch of Pedregal. Visiting, even today, is quite a different experience from that one will have in the always well-heeled Jardines de Pedregal across University City to the west. But visit one must. The streets of Santo Domingo are wildly uneven. Homes built over decades have been adapted to the unforgiving landscape. Over so many years, they’ve become that much more forgiving.

Mercado Santo Domingo Las Rosas is home to some 102 formal merchants (according to a 2017 UAM study). But the surrounding streets host many more. Amongst all of them, one can find the best Mexico City cooking. And one need only seek out the lunch counters, comida corridas, and similar eateries. There’s an advantage to be had in eating directly with the distributors, and here there’s no exception.

In fact, by supporting smaller eateries, international visitors are also supporting farmers from as close as Tláhuac, Xochimilco, and Mexico State. And many smaller kitchens are women-owned, -operated, and -staffed.

Hours: Daily, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.