Cantina Tio Pepe

Cantina Tio Pepe is a long-established traditional cantina on Avenida Lopez Mateos Poniente in the Colonia Centro of Aguascalientes city. The format has not changed in decades and is the reason to visit: tequila and beer ordered by the round, botanas carried to the table with each new round, dominoes and cards at the back tables, and waiters who have worked the same floor for years. The room is functional rather than decorated - tiled floor, wooden and formica tables, a bar along one wall, a television usually showing football - and the atmosphere is conversational, loud in bursts, and entirely unconcerned with visitors.

Drinks are spirit and beer led. Tequila by the shot from around MXN 50, bottled Mexican lager at roughly MXN 30 to 50, caguamas for sharing, brandy and rum behind the bar, and micheladas made to order at around MXN 60 to 90. Mixed drinks beyond that are perfunctory. The complimentary botanas that come with rounds - guisados, chicharron, sopes, beans, whatever the kitchen has prepared that day - are substantial enough that a long afternoon here replaces a meal, which is the traditional economics of the Aguascalientes cantina.

The crowd skews older and predominantly male on weekday afternoons, filling out with mixed groups on Saturdays. There is no dress code, no cover charge and no door policy whatsoever. Spanish is essential; English is not spoken. Music is limited to a jukebox or radio playing rancheras, boleros and cumbia at a volume that permits conversation, and there is no dance floor or live programming.

Hours run Monday to Saturday from midday to 11PM, closed Sunday. The cantina's real window is the afternoon: from roughly 2PM to 6PM the kitchen runs hardest and the botana service is at its most generous, and the room quietens noticeably in the last hours before closing. Reservations do not exist and tables are taken as people arrive. During the Feria de San Marcos in April the cantina fills earlier in the day, and the surrounding Lopez Mateos corridor becomes difficult to park near, making a short walk or taxi from the Plaza de la Patria the easier approach.