Mexico City has hundreds of watering holes, but perhaps none is more well-known than La Opera, which opened in 1876. Since then, a parade of famous, infamous, and not-so-famous guests has graced its bar (which was imported from New Orleans) and tables, among them some of the most revered and reviled personalities in Mexican history: Porfirio Díaz, Emiliano Zapata, and Pancho Villa. This last left his mark at the bar—literally. Villa fired his gun into the ceiling, and the evidence of his action is still visible today. Other illustrious visitors include famed Mexican and Latin American writers, among them the Nobel winner Gabriel García Marquéz, a Colombian who lived in Mexico City until his death in 2014. Maybe the magic of La Opera will rub off on you, but even if it doesn’t, this is a memorable place to have a drink the Centro Histórico.
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Mexico City has hundreds of watering holes, but perhaps none is more well-known than La Opera, which opened in 1876. Since then, a parade of famous, infamous, and not-so-famous guests has graced its bar (which was imported from New Orleans) and tables, among them some of the most revered and reviled personalities in Mexican history: Porfirio Díaz, Emiliano Zapata, and Pancho Villa. This last left his mark at the bar—literally. Villa fired his gun into the ceiling, and the evidence of his action is still visible today. Other illustrious visitors include famed Mexican and Latin American writers, among them the Nobel winner Gabriel García Marquéz, a Colombian who lived in Mexico City until his death in 2014. Maybe the magic of La Opera will rub off on you, but even if it doesn’t, this is a memorable place to have a drink the Centro Histórico.
