Borderlands are fascinating social and cultural mixing bowls. Their restaurants exemplify how variable these places can be. Lacking tradition as well as a local clientele and culture, there is little shaping them other than market forces. The history of restaurants and cafes in Tijuana is marked by all the instability and calamity that the restaurant business is known for — and then some!
Partnerships shifted, scandals erupted, and fires swept through the main street, Avenida Revolucion. American visitors who began to head there did not go to soak up Mexican culture, but to escape restraints [see advertisement above]. Few were run by Mexicans and Mexican food ranked low on the culinary scale. Determined to limit vice, prohibitionists waged vigorous battle to restrict passage by shortening border crossing hours, finally succeeding in closing the border from 6 pm to 6 am in They alleged that visitors went for the whole day or stayed overnight, enabling them to engage in more drinking, gambling, or whatever than previously.
Tijuana flourished, opening more cafes, clubs, and hotels. In this category were restaurants variously operated by Alex and Caesar Cardini of salad fame. They had heard of his special salad and were eager to taste it. The border curfew was relaxed in and lifted entirely in But if that had an adverse impact on Tijuana tourist trade, it was nothing compared to the blows delivered by the repeal of U.
Prohibition in and a Mexican gambling ban in Tijuana bartenders correctly predicted few bars and cafes would survive. Sure enough, proprietors headed back to the U. Caesar Cardini opened a place in San Diego in The tourist economy waxed and waned thereafter, thanks to such things as the year-old drinking age, the availability of marihuana, and incidents of violence.
Today Tijuana is a large global city, yet Americans tend to stick to the main tourist avenue as of old. There is a diversity of restaurants, many with Hispanic names and owners. Real history? Filed under miscellaneous , night clubs.
