They don't do decaf

On the corner of Nápoles and Liverpool in the Colonia Juárez, Gabi's is a resolutely old-school cafe. Decorated with ancient coffee grinders, espresso pots and drip coffee makers, the clientele is mostly from the neighborhood. You will not find any of the kids with stylishly asymmetrical hairdos that buy their java in Starbuck's or its Mexican upstart competitors, Cafe Punta del Cielo and Cielito Querido Cafe.

In fact, this place is such a blast from the past that, on a recent afternoon, when someone asked for a decaf, the waitress looked at him as if he came from a distant galaxy.

It's a great place to while away an hour in the afternoon, reading, writing or chatting, as the light streams in from the picture windows.

 

Still life

If you go through the archives of this blog, you will find I have posted about mannequins more than any other subject in Mexico City. Is it because they are so much a part of the fabric of life here -- their lifeless figures abounding? Or are they my obsession? One theory doesn't preclude the other.

After one of my posts, I began to receive persistent and annoying emails from a company in China that made mannequins, suggesting I buy some of their product.

In any case I was walking on Insurgentes Avenue and saw this. Naturally, I looked up the website (www.manisamex.com.mx), to find out that they are a distributor of some very sophisticated mannequins. Not that you'd actually notice from the window display.