Mexico City: Day 2
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We had breakfast at the St. Regis Hotel, designs by Cesar Pelli, on one of Mexico City's main drags, Paseo de Reforma. From the St. Regis terrace you have a great view to the west of Chapultepec Park as well as Chapultepec Castle. To the east you can see the Angel de Independencia. -
Fruit, fruit endless fruit for breakfast. -
Reforma has a number of pretty traffic circles. This one has a sculpture of the goddess Diana. -
Our first stop was at Ceramica, a ceramics studio in the Coyoacan neighborhood. Ceramica has been around since 1964 and is the studio and classroom of designer Alberto Gonzalez de Cossío. -
Alberto's studio is totally open to the elements. He makes use of 25 tons of clay each year designing pottery and teaching. That's him in the blue apron. He was charmingly polemical, emphasizing his opposition to industrial techniques in pottery. He loves to see the hand of the creator. -
Here's a mess of pots waiting to be fired. -
Alberto's daughter is also a designer of pottery. In the shop they show off some of her vases cut to appear as though they've got thorns. -
One of the leading lights of Mexican industrial design Horacio Duran died last year. Duran requested that Alberto make a dish with some of his ashes. A bit eerie maybe, but a loving tribute from one designer to another. -
After our visit to Ceramica we stopped into a bustling market in Coyoacan for a small bite. The amount of amazing food on display was staggering. -
Here is a bunch of us sampling some very salty crickets. Not everyone was a fan, though I gingerly munched my handful of crunchy bugs. -
Con carne? -
Next up was a quick visit to the Habita Hotel, part of the same group that contains the lovely Condesa DF that we saw the day before. Clean design, minimal and modern with a cool architectural bookstore in the lobby. -
The split-level roof deck was splendid. And the views of the city, which I'm taking in here, are pretty stellar too. -
Love the packaging on the bottles of mescal the Habita freely hands out. -
Here's the new home of the Mexican design brand Pirwi. The mansion into which they moved their showroom was spectacular and a wonderfully ornate counterpoint to the clean, green furniture they make. -
I loved these chairs by Luis Mercado. They're made of birch plywood and because they're so porous they stand up well to warm climates. -
These shelves were designed by Ian Ortega, who told me that he likes a modular system and imagines these interacting on the wall. You can also hang a coat from the pegs on the end. -
Here's a glimpse of the building into which Pirwi moved. We called it our prom picture with we journos and many of the Pirwi designers, including honcho and wonderful furniture designer Emiliano Godoy. -
Our next stop was the gallery ADN in Polanco. It's a great space dedicated to 20th century Mexican design and it ranges from very classically modernist pieces to the daffier end of the furniture spectrum. -
Here Aaron Able of Apartment Therapy chats with Paulina who owns ADN with her husband Paulo. In the background is a small white chair by Ariel Rojo and a seemingly in-motion chest by EOS Mexico Studio. -
Finally we got to our very late lunch at Pujol. Here's chef Enrique Olvera describing his haute-cuisine take on traditional Mexican dishes. -
One of the many appetizers was this slowly smoking baby corn in a coffee mayonnaise. So outstanding. -
For one of our desserts we got a lovely fruity sorbet with just a small dram of tequila poured over the top. The flavor was perfect.
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