After a long, hot day of shopping (locals) or visiting museums (tourists) in Mexico City’s Centro Histórico, La Azotea rooftop restaurant may seem like a mirage at first. Located on the terrace of Barrio Alameda, a boutique mall and Mexican Art Déco building that was charmingly restored several years ago, La Azotea looks out over green trees, colonial bell towers, blue-tiled cupolas and the avant-garde buildings of Mexico City’s center and Alameda Central park.
This oasis is for real, says its bartender, Ángel Salatiel Flores (32), who is quenching people’s thirst with more than just sparkling water. Dating back to the 1920s, the Barrio Alameda building was constructed by a German doctor and soon after became a professional services building for folks like lawyers and accountants. The 1985 earthquake left the building in disrepair until a local urban restoration group came to the rescue, paying such attention to detail that even the light fixtures are impressive. Now, this food, drinks and shopping hub is a haven for Mexican-run businesses, with almost everything inside locally made – down to the craft beer sold on the terrace at La Azotea (as opposed to the typical German or Belgium labels you would find at a similar venue).
Slinging sophisticated cocktails from behind the rooftop bar, Ángel tells us how he slowly made his way up the food chain. He got his start in the service industry at the age of 17 right here in the Centro Histórico, working in the kitchen of Mercaderes, an elegant Mexican restaurant located a few steps from the Zócalo main square. “I used to do all kinds of jobs,” he tells us, “carrying out ice cubes, valet parking, running to the Sanborns department store for cigarettes, slicing lemons, you name it. I would do whatever to make every client a satisfied customer.”
“I realized you could really understand about a culture through its cuisine,” Ángel says.
It was thanks to a man named Charlie, the old-school bartender at Mercaderes, that Ángel learned how to prepare the “classics” of Mexican mixed drinks: Mojitos, Sol y Sombra, Cola de Lagarto and Medias de Seda, to name a few. “Those were two years of hard learning, but I made up my mind that this was what I really wanted to do for a living,” Ángel says. He was determined to get through cooking school and, needing to both work and study, he started at the National College of Professional Technical Education, a public university that trains working professionals. He completed as many certificate programs as possible while working full time. Eventually, Ángel moved on to work at Macelleria de Roma, an Italian restaurant in Cuauhtémoc. There, he learned – among many other things – how to make limoncello. “I realized you could really understand about a culture through its cuisine,” Ángel says.
He also says he owes his position behind La Azotea’s bar to that decade and a half of work in the industry. La Azotea’s former manager, an industry friend of Ángel’s, called him up one day to ask him if he was available for the bartending job. Ángel knew he had to take the offer. Since his arrival at the rooftop space, he has made some modifications to the classic cocktails on offer. The mojito, a favorite at La Azotea, is served with crushed ice and strawberries. Recently, there has been a lot of buzz around cocktails made with mezcal – not only in Mexico City, but all over the country, as well as internationally. Ángel’s own creation, the Mezcalina de Toledo, is one deserving of such buzz.
“We like to make something special each season. In September 2019, I was thinking about what to prepare to celebrate Independence Day. Then, I read in the news that Francisco Toledo, the most famous painter from Oaxaca, had passed away. So, I decided to create a drink as my humble homage to him,” Ángel recounts. A hibiscus flower and ancho chile infusion, rosemary, tea, pineapple and lime juice with an ounce and a half of espadín mezcal – “I was very happy with how it came out!” he says proudly. Another of Ángel’s drinks catches our attention: a martini prepared with Tejate (a prehispanic Oaxacan cacao beverage made with corn, rosita de cacao flower and mamey seed). It was spectacular.
The food menu at La Azotea is just as eclectic as the drinks, ranging from premium sandwiches to Oaxacan tlayudas, but there’s nothing quite so rejuvenating as sipping a cocktail and looking out over the city. “If you want to enjoy a quiet, relaxing moment – to rest or even get some work done: this is the place. The music is atmospheric, not loud at all,” Ángel insists, though we know La Azotea draws quite the crowd in the evening. This, he says, is a space where everyone is welcome to renew themselves, much like the Barrio Alameda building.
This article was originally published on August 13, 2021.
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