MEXICAN CAFÉ'S HISTORY

The Mexican Café's history is full of passion.

Bruce Glover, proprietor of the Mex started to travel around the world in 1972 and spent 2 years as head chef in Café Pacifico in Amsterdam, Holland, one of the first Mexican restaurants in Europe. He also spent one and a half years living in Latin America, where he opened a similar operation to Café Pacifico in 1981 in Buzios, Brazil. It was there that Bruce met his other passion, his wife, Elemaria Cabral a Brazilian artist. After this meeting they came to New Zealand in 1982, over 20 years ago, and opened Mexican Café in Albert Street, Auckland initially with only 24 seats. At that time Mexican Café was one of the first restaurants in New Zealand to have an open kitchen. The mix between Bruce, who already had a passion for Mexico and Elemaria Cabral, Brazilian artist and Mexican art lover, was the perfect combination to make the Mexican Cafe really exotic.

The Mex also was the first cafe where you could sit at the bar to eat and drink if you wanted to. Cafes of this type have been operating for decades in Mexico and Latin America. In 1985, the Mex moved to Victoria Street. Throughout that time they built a decent sized Cantina style bar and have been able to expose their large and interesting collection Mexican Art and paraphenalia. So far the Mex has grown in size and patrons. The Mexican Café is a meeting place for artists and renowned people in New Zealand and also for Latin American people that can find there real Latin American atmosphere and feel at home even though they are far from their country.

The Mex has always offered and continues to offer Latin American entertainment, from musicians to dancers.

The partnership of Bruce and Elemaria Cabral has given the Mexican Café a union of Brazilian and Latin American culture that has been intertwined with New Zealand culture as well, through them they have created the Mexican Café as an unique and exotic place to dine and be entertained.