"Every city would be blessed to have an array of great locals' spots like Mexico City's cantinas. The venues run the gamut in style and clientele, attracting all kinds of customers. Some are century-old gems, giving visitors a peek into the city's long culinary history. And the food, ranging from free drinking snacks to house specialties worth seeking out, goes well beyond bar bites you might find elsewhere."
"Carlos Monsiváis, a superstar of Mexican literature, once described cantinas as "wayward sanctuaries in which sad, comic, tragic, melodramatic interactions abound. Every type of person meets there." The Golden Age of Mexican cinema, in the '40s and '50s, portrayed cantinas as the source of everything delinquent and decadent, yet it was here where writers, artists, politicians, and academics came together to confront a changing post-Revolutionary Mexico."
Mexico City's cantinas function as classic local bars that welcome in-the-know visitors and residents alike for rounds of drinks, snacks, music, and fun. Cantinas range widely in style and clientele, including century-old establishments that reveal the city's culinary history. Food offerings extend from complimentary drinking snacks to distinctive house specialties worth seeking out. Cantinas historically served occupying forces in the 1840s and later received specific licenses beginning in 1872. Cantinas became cultural meeting places where writers, artists, politicians, and academics gathered, and they continue to operate as tolerant social hubs where people of varied backgrounds coexist despite differing affiliations.
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