The Great Escape: Mexico City

Known for her striking food photography, Colombian creative Ana Lorenzana has called Mexico City home for the last 12 years – mainly taking pictures of food. Her work has appeared in publications around the world, including Crash Magazine, Nylon USA, Vogue, Vogue Hommes, and more.

Name 10 places one must visit, eat, shop in when in Mexico City.

• Bosque de Chapultepec is not only a super beautiful forest in the middle of the city, it is full of fun activities to do. Visit the Chapultepec Castle, the Museum of Modern Art, eat Dorilocos next to the monument of Los Niños Heroes. Also visit the Tamayo Museum just around the corner and do not miss the most amazing museum of the city, The National Museum of Anthropology.

• Go to a cantina: a great one could be El Mirador de Chapultepec for great food and cool ambiance. Another great one is Bar El Sella.

• Visit el centro historico of Mexico City: Start with a great breakfast in the beautiful restaurant of Gabriela Camara, Itacate del mar, try a Garibaldi, then go see the Zócalo, la Plaza de la Constitución, El Templo Mayor. Then find Los Cocuyos and try a taco de suadero. Walk a little bit more towards La Torre Latinoamericana, go up and see the most amazing view of Mexico City, just across the street from the tower, check out El Palacio de Bellas Artes. It is breathtaking. Finish by going to see some mariachis at Plaza Garibaldi.

• Eat tacos late at night: A great place to do so is El Vilsito Great Tacos al Pastor, you will see the taco guys working nonstop – it is fun to watch and tacos are so good.

• Take a Lagunilla food tour on a Sunday. It is the most amazing flea market in the city, but you can also find so much great food. It is better to go with the Devoured team, they know where it is safe to eat and will make it a great experience.

• Walk around la Roma Norte and eat at Meroma, the food is spectacular, and it has a downstairs bar where you can just have great cocktails or wine recommended by Rodney and Mercedes – the chefs and nicest people you will meet in CMDX.

• Fideo Gordo is the new restaurant of chef Edo Nakatani. The name means “fat noodle” – the noodles are so good, the space is colourful, it is a young, delicious new spot. The chef also makes great salsas called Salsas IKI, a great gift to bring back home.

• Dooriban is the best Korean restaurant, also such a beautiful place with great ambiance. The kitchen is open and you can see Chef Mamá Park work.

• Jarilla: in the new and beautiful Pasaje Parian, Jarilla is a snack bar, but also a small market where you can buy fresh produce but also a decor store. It is everything – their pastries are beyond delicious, best cookies and bread around the corner. Have their canelé, chicken sandwich, and mole eggs, you’ll go back a couple of times for sure.

• Contramar: Have pescado a la talla, tostadas de atún, ceviches, tacos, tetelas, spend a whole afternoon doing sobremesa drinking mezcal and having carajillos with dessert here.

• Rompeolas Café: The best coffee in Roma Norte.

• Quesadillas Jenni: A little bit of street food in the corner of Colima and Merida, Doña Jenni is there every day making amazing quesadillas on her comal. You can sit on the sidewalk or just keep on walking around with your delicious quesadilla. Say hi to Jenni from me!

Shop at:
• Hi bye
• Audette
• Back to life

Galleries:
• Agustina Ferreyra Gallery
• OMR
• Machete
• Proyectos Monclova
• Lulu
• Arrroniz

Walk around la San Miguel Chapultepec: You can start having breakfast at MariGold (the new baby of the Masala and Maiz chefs Norma and Saqib) the food is so special, try their molotes and if you haven’t tried an Atole (corn masa based beverage) jet, it is a great moment to do so. Just next to it there is La Super Cope, where you can have amazing coffee, pastries and also buy beautiful gifts to get back home. Then go see the Kurimanzutto gallery and visit two of the Barragan Houses that are in the neighborhood.

Walk around la Juárez: You can start by having lunch at Masala y Maiz, then continue with an afternoon full of great shopping. Don’t miss Karla Fernandez‘s boutique just next to the restaurant, then walk towards Marsella 68 where you will find many great Mexican designers, grab a coffee just across the street at Blom Café, on the same street keep on walking and get to Utilitario Mexicano where you will find more Mexican design, not far away from there is Perla Valtierra’s showroom – you will be obsessed with her ceramics. Finish with the most delicious gelato in the city at Joe Gelato.

Xochimilco: Going to Xochimilco is fun, you can go there by yourself, weekends are full of people, there are trajineras (or gondolas) with music, others with food. You get the idea of Mexico’s “Little Venice” if you want. Another way to go is with Arca Tierra that has great activities in their floating gardens, they invite chefs so you can go there and also have a great food experience, and you can even go see the sunrise. That plan is my absolute favorite, or you can also go with Giuseppe from Gula – both options are a great way to experience Xochimilco in a different way.

Go see the south of the city: Coyoacan and San Angel are such beautiful neighbourhoods, Frida Khalo’s house is there, surrounded by more beautiful houses. Tthe Coyoacan market is a great place to grab some food.

Why do you think Mexico City became one of the hottest art and design cities today and what are some of its hidden gems?

Mexico City has always been a super exciting city to live in or to visit. There are endless things happening here all the time, in arts, music, food, theatre, design, architecture. Any subject you are interested in, you can find that it’s happening here, somewhere, so I do not think it has become a hot city, I think it has always been a super hot city, but some people are just finding that out now.

Hidden gems:
• Museo Anahuacalli
• Lago Algo
• Pension Casa Bosques, you can now stay as a guest in unique rooms above the Casa Bosques bookstore, next to their small chocolate factory (that you can go check out and also buy their chocolate bars), the place is so beautiful, it smells so good, the rooms are so precious.

• On Wednesday afternoons, you can eat Marquesitas, a dessert from Yucatan, in the corner of streets of Colima and Morelia in Roma Norte, the small food car from Markesitas Mayas parks in that corner until late at night and it’s good to know they are there. Marquesitas are so good, go try them. Check out this TikTok to see what a marquesita is.

Mexican cuisine has evolved so dramatically in the last decade, with exciting new talent and concepts. What’s next? Who are the ‘ones to watch’ and why?

There are so many new places and places that are about to open that it is hard to try them all. Having said that, Fugaz is one of my favorite new openings in the city, chef Giuseppe Lacorazza from Gula never disappoints and it’s a place that you can go many times a week.

After opening in a small apartment/gallery for quite a few months, Esquina Común is about to open a bigger space. Chef Ana Dolores always has exciting things happening.

Another project to watch is upcoming Fabiola Escobosa‘s new restaurant in Colonia Juarez, she has a fascinating career and in the last couple of years was the corporate chef of Enrique Olvera’s group. Her food is so good, and I cannot wait for her to open her own space.

Finally the team of Sexto are back in town after a long time cooking in Oaxaca and are making an itinerant cantina called Coyota.

All photographs by Ana Lorenzana. Follow Ana on Instagram @analorenzana.