World Hum | Travel | ‘On the Road’ Sites, Including a Mexico City Sanborns, Then and Now

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9.4.07

‘On the Road’ Sites, Including a Mexico City Sanborns, Then and Now

Fifty years after the publication of “On the Road,” the Los Angeles Times’s Christopher Reynolds observes how a number of places depicted in the book have changed—or not—from Sausalito to New York City. Among the places he includes is Mexico City’s famed blue-tiled Sanborns (pictured).

In the novel, Jack Kerouac writes that Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty “ate beautiful steaks for forty-eight cents in a strange tiled Mexican cafeteria with generations of marimba musicians.”

Writes Reynolds: “Sal never mentions a name for that eatery, but it sounds a lot like Sanborns’ La Casa de los Azulejos, a city landmark (and cafeteria and department store) that dates to the 16th century. Famed for its tile work and murals, the building has included a restaurant since about 1919.”

I stopped by the historic restaurant on a recent visit to Mexico City. The place looked as though I imagined it way back when—though I didn’t see anything on the menu for 48 cents.

Photo by jrsnchzhrs via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

Posted by Jim Benning • 9.4.07
Categories: Weblog • Food: The Moveable Feast • Icons: Jack Kerouac • Mexico

Permalink • Comments (2)

COMMENTS

thanks for the tip. i’ll drop by for a visit after i beat this shooting-my-wife-in-the-face rap.

By on 9.5.07 at 08:57 AM

My first visit to the Sanborns mentioned in Mexico City was in 1971. The city was about eight million then and outside Sanborns was the only public phone in the city where it was possible to call the United States. It was a great place.

By on 9.9.07 at 08:03 AM