Last weekend, my friend and landlady, Mely – who is in her late 60’s, asked that I join her and some of her lady friends at a cantina located in México City’s la Lagunilla market area, an area known for its famous Sunday flea market.  Mely said there would be music and food and since I shop in the area and have never entered a cantina there I thought, sure why not?

The cantina’s name is Moravia and is on Allende street and is in front of the Mercado Lagunilla where clothing is sold.  The place is owned by a gentleman that is known as Alfredo and who is originally from Galicia Spain.  I was told Alfredo used to sing in the finer hotels in La Zona Rosa, back in the day.  Now he owns the Moravia in El Centro Historico.

We walked into the small cantina, which advertises itself as a “family restaurant bar.”  We made our way across the cantina while the owner Alfredo, was at the keyboards and singing.  He really sounded pretty good with a rich tone voice that reminded me of the old Spanish singers.  The place was almost full, the only place to sit was right directly in front of a speaker: OUCH.  I couldn’t hear any of the conversations from where I was sitting so got up and wondered around.

As I looked around I knew I was in a classy place when I noted this man whose beer belly was almost too big for his shirt picked up a toothpick from the table and started to scratch and clean his ears with it.  Not wanting to find out if he was going to clean his teeth with that toothpick too, I looked away at the art on the walls.

The art on the walls looked like small-signed originals signed by Francisco Zuñiga and José David Alfaro Siqueiros, known just as Siqueiros.  Though I have been in many little dive cantinas like the Moravia this was the first time I had encounter art works by famous artists just hanging on the walls – something I found most intriguing.  Are they real?

I ended up towards the entrance of the bar because sitting in front of the speaker hurt my ears too much; the ladies never moved.  So I sat alone enjoying the sights of people having a good time and dancing.  There is no dance floor but a couple of people danced.

The Moravia has good food, not scary, is clean, cheesy and worth checking out: located on Allende # 94.  Live music with Alfredo, a one-man band, Thursday through Sunday after 4:00 PM. The food is good, but the best part about the place are the beer prices: cold Mexican beers sell for only $15.00 pesos which is like $1.20 USD and these are all the time every day prices.

Click photo above for slide show of the afternoon