Bar 246 opens for biz

BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News (+ my photo)

July 30, 2009

On a block surrounded by dance clubs and dingy cantinas, a newly opened restaurant-bar has emerged to offer a fresh perspective to night owls in Mexico City's Colonia Roma.

Bar 246, which opened on Tuesday, strives to serve a wide variety of clientele: soccer fans who come to watch the game; reggae or rock fanatics who come to hear deejays spin; artists who come to display their works; or hungry guests who simply wish to enjoy some tapas and good wine.

The bar is a long corridor filled with comfy booths and low-lying leather tables paired with matching stools. Most walls are painted with warm shades of green and red, and a graffiti wall is designated for patrons to scribble away.

Felipe Bustamante, one of the bar's 12 owners and a musician with the rock-ska band Panteón Rococo, said that while the creative team is still developing the spot's overall concept, the central idea remains that 246 should be a bar where all the owners would want to hang out themselves.

"That's one of our basic ideas - a place where the cost is low, the music is great and the service is good," he said.

The 246 kitchen offers a variety of simple tapas and a full list of beer, wine and liquor; a small plate and a couple of drinks should cost no more than 150 pesos per person.

Elí Evangelista Martínez, subdirector of the Institute of Youth in D.F., said the bar strives to be a melting pot of the diverse Latin American and international cultures throughout the capital city.

"We're looking to establish a type of dialogue that doesn't just remain at the level of Mexico City, but further," he said. "We're reaching out to the social and cultural actors in the city, but we're also thinking about building bridges of communication with other communities."