Mexico City, Sep 18 (EFE) The Caesar restaurant in the Mexican city of Tijuana, which is considered to be the birthplace of the famous Caesar salad, has closed its doors because of the recession, the manager of the establishment said.
“They kicked us out for not paying (the rent) … last Monday,” Jorge Chavez told EFE in a telephone interview, adding that a fire had also occurred at the restaurant three years ago.
“From that point to this we couldn’t get going again. Then, other economic problems came. The crisis hit us,” he said.
The Caesar, founded in 1916, has gone through different phases since Italian immigrant Cesare Cardini – held to have created the famous salad in the mid-1920s – took charge of it.
The well-known dish came about by chance, on a day when Cardini had to improvise a meal for his friends with leftovers he had in the kitchen.
Romaine lettuce, garlic, anchovies, olive oil, wine vinegar, salt and pepper, Worcestershire sauce, freshly squeezed lemon juice, egg yolks, croutons and parmesan cheese are the ingredients that over the years were added to or subtracted from, shifted around and changed in the salad, often to suit the tastes of the individual customer, who could request a tailor-made version of the dish just the way he or she wanted it.
This northwestern Mexican city for decades was one of the preferred destinations of many US tourists who crossed the border at San Diego, California, to sample the nightlife in adjacent Tijuana.
In addition, the 64-year-old Chavez said, there has been a falloff in European visitors, who came to the restaurant “mainly on the lightest days, Mondays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays, since that group of tourists doesn’t like crowds much”.
