Down Mexico Way

FANFAIR

MEXICO CITY'S FASHIONABLE SET IS FLOCKING TO ROMA AND CONDESA

Mexico City is chaos giving way to culture—all of the excitement of civilization without the constrictions of an Establishment. Politicians, art collectors, C.E.O.'s of television stations, and just about everyone you'll rub shoulders with at an art opening tend to be under 40. There is an exciting air of lawlessness in a city where traffic lights are suggestive only, politicians use the word "security" as a campaign promise, and U.S. State Department warnings are issued about the ubiquitous and treacherous green Volkswagen taxis. In the last 10 years, following the advent of NAFTA and the end of the 71-year single-party rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, a new excitement has hit the city, inspiring movies such as Lucia, Lucia, hotels such as Hotel Habita, magazines such as Celeste, and brand-new restaurants, most notably Restaurante Lamm, which opened in March in Casa Lamm, the renovated architectural marvel in the Roma district. Artists tend to congregate in the Condesa and Roma neighborhoods, where Art Deco houses from the 1920s and 1930s mingle with archly modern buildings surrounding Parque Mexico, and restaurants spill out onto wide boulevards shaded by trees, next to design shops, galleries, loft spaces, and old pool halls. Centering itself firmly between Condesa and Roma is the Hotel Condesa, which will open in March 2004, owned by Hotel Habita in partnership with Jonathan Morr, who will start a restaurant there. Refreshingly, it isn't just about the money. Rooms at the Condesa will be around $ 125 a night, and even Mexico City's young success stories view themselves with tongue firmly in cheek—witness the garish portraits by Daniela Rossell in the book Ricas y Famosas or the E-mail address of artist Miguel Calderon, which translates as "Daddy pays." Simple pleasures abound, most memorably ducking out of a hailstorm into the Museo de Arte Moderno, the finest collection of modern art in Mexico, with the hail on the domed roofs sounding like thunderous applause.

WILLIAM GEORGIADES