But in 2010, a local family – the Plascencias – reopened it after a total scrub-down. In 2009, Caesar’s, which was no longer owned by the Cardinis and had deteriorated into a scruffy dive, closed. Once a glamorous haunt for Tinseltown stars and gangsters, the city spiralled into a decades-long wave of crime and violence before experiencing a recent cultural revival. In many ways, Caesar’s recent history mirrors Tijuana’s. But while the brand is now based in the US, the restaurant that inspired the dish and its roots are planted firmly in Tijuana. Today, it’s still sold as Caesar Cardini’s Dressing. The Cardinis packed up from Tijuana and moved to Los Angeles, where they patented their family’s famous salad dressing in 1948. And in 1953, it was even crowned as ‘the greatest recipe to originate in the Americas in 50 years’ by the International Society of Epicures in Paris. In the 1940s, Gourmet Magazine called the dish ‘the gastronomic highlight of the current moment’. In fact, the salad soon spread from Mexico and the Golden State across the globe. On a whim, Cardini improvised a dish using romaine lettuce leaves, raw egg yolk, Parmesan cheese and other leftovers – transforming the odd scraps into a surprisingly delicious meal. As legend has it, the restaurant was doing such brisk business on American Independence Day that it was running short on ingredients. But to escape Prohibition, he moved across the border to Tijuana in the 1920s before opening his business in its current location in 1927.Īs Cardini’s daughter, Rosa, famously recounted for decades until her death in 2003, her father invented his namesake dish on 4 July 1924. A couple of palm trees stand in front of the building, gently blocking the red letters spelling ‘Caesar’s’, and a giant black-and-white portrait of founder Cesare (‘Caesar’) Cardini hangs outside the patio with the words ‘Home of the legendary Caesar’s Salad’.Īfter immigrating to the US from Italy in the 1910s, Cardini opened a restaurant in Sacramento and later in San Diego. A 25-minute walk from the border, Caesar’s Restaurante-Bar has been located on Tijuana’s main drag since 1927. After getting my passport stamped and walking across the border, I wandered past discount chemists and souvenir stalls peddling ponchos on my way to Avenida Revolución.
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