A good way to get arrested in this city is to drink on the street (which includes open containers of alcoholic beverages). Mexico City is NOT Cancun or Vegas. The cops here are in no way screwing around with that law. Pushing your luck like that is a great way to spend two or three days in jail (unless you work for the embassy and have diplomatic immunity, which, if that's the case you should probably consider rehab). Anyways, drinking on the street here isn't exactly considered classy and seems to be the domain of hobos and crazy folk.
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| Pictured: Cops in no way screwing around |
Now that I've added some info on what should be just plain common sense, let's skip right to the good part: where to drink. Now, drinking is a huge part of life down here, and that goes double if you're here on business, since most business deals and meetings with clients take place in a restaurant/bar setting. That's not to say that the population consists of raging alcoholics, but if you plan on doing business or living down here, you'd better learn to hold your drink.
Don't worry if you absolutely hate tequila, most people I know don't even touch the stuff. The real poison of choice for the masses seems to be beer and rum (Bacardi being by far the most popular choice), personally I drink the same stuff I drink back in the states: good ol' vodka. Truth be told, you can get just about anything to drink down here, from ridiculously old and expensive scotch to absinthe (which I highly recommend trying at least once, it's really not that bad). For all your booze shopping needs try: La Europea (kind of like an über-liquor store), and strangely enough the department stores Liverpool and the Palacio de Hierro (I still have no clue what they were going for with those store names, I mean, is Liverpool reknowned for its' fashion?).
If you simply must do your drinking in a public environment (you people disgust me...), trust me, go to a bar. Nightclubs in this city seem to be the domain of damn dirty teenagers with more money than brains. It's kind of a right of passage in Mexico City society, you go to clubs until your early twenties (like 22 tops) and then you upgrade to bars. One important caveat, what kind of club you go to is also important, clubs that play rock/heavy metal/alternative like the Bulldog Cafe are a socially acceptable place to go to up until you're in your thirties. The basic rule of thumb here is: if they at some point play live music or a famous band (for example I saw Radiohead at the Bulldog Cafe once many moons ago) deems the venue worthy of a visit, you can go there in your mid-late-twenties. If not, and it's just a so-called fresa (translation: preppy) club, you're just going to look like the creepy old man/cougar who is trying oh so desperately hard to look young.
Since I'm kind of gearing this blog toward twentysomethings like me, I'm going to stick to the safe bet: bars and snobby restaurants. Now, I'm not telling you not to go to the, ahem, scenic parts of town (Downtown especially), because there are actually some very good places to eat and drink down there. What I am telling you is, unless you want to get A) hopelessly lost B) stuck in the middle of a mass protest (oh yeah, those happen here like almost daily) or C) stuck in some of the most ridiculous traffic ever, I would steer clear from there until you have gotten your bearings around town. But if you simply MUST see the Zocalo (that enormous plaza in the middle of Downtown, or El Centro), take a cab or a tour bus (Turibus), stay the hell away from the subway (which gets you there fast, at the cost of your wallet, since in some busy stations, the subway is swarming with pickpockets) and buses (just because, well, the drivers drive like they are on shrooms and they're not exactly the most hygenic of environments).
The areas you really want to go for are places like San Angel, Santa Fe, Polanco and Reforma which should be your chosen stomping ground if you like louge-type places with snobby clientele (who doesn't, am I right?), the Condesa (although parking is a real bitch) and Coyoacan if you're feeling a little bohemian and want some good places to do your drinkin' but don't feel like paying a whole lot. Anything outside of these districts is a bit iffy.
As I wrote above, the Centro is a great place to go if you want to check out museums (which are surprisingly good) and the famous Cathedral (yawn), but due to the monstrous amount of traffic and sheer urban chaos, it should be avoided like the plague. That being said, I recommend La Opera, one of the city's oldest cantinas: good food, good booze (and not too expensive), and, oh yeah, a bullet hole in the ceilling made by Pancho "Don't Mess With Me Or I'll Cut You" Villa back during the Mexican Revolution (1910 to depends on who you ask). Other places are a little more off the beaten path and require a little more familiarity with the area (which if anyone wants I'll gladly go down and do some recon), so I can't really vouch for other bars in the neighborhood.
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| Always a good decision |
So what have we learned today:
- Drink on the street/sidewalk/middle of the road and the police will end you
- If you aren't a pretty adventurous person, stay away from Mexico City's Downtown, and especially don't get drunk there.
- Drinking here is pretty much the same as anywhere else in the world (well, aside from the crime and all that junk)
- If you aren't a regular drinker back home, chances are a 16 year old Mexican high school student can out drink your sorry ass.
Since I really haven't even begun to scratch the surface on the topic of drinking, I'll probably do another one of these sometime in the near future.... Next Topic: Smoking (if you don't smoke, well, good for you, do you want a medal or something?)
