Salad a Casualty

Tijuana’s Caesar's Restaurant on Avenida Revolución, reputed to be the spot where Caesar salad was invented, has closed its doors after more than 80 years in business.

The Tijuana daily Frontera reported that the restaurant shut its doors on Monday, September 14, a victim of the collapse of the city’s tourism industry and a severe economic crisis that continues to grip the formerly bustling downtown district.

Business leaders report that some 60 percent of Avenida Revolución’s restaurants, shops, bars, and discos have closed in recent years — more than 200 establishments altogether.

On Monday morning, reported Frontera, chairs, desks, tables, pots, pans, and electrical equipment were being moved out of the restaurant and onto the sidewalk in front of the business.

Legend has it that Caesar salad was invented at the restaurant in the early 1920s by Caesar Cardini, an Italian-born Mexican who lived in San Diego but operated the Tijuana eatery to avoid Prohibition laws. During the time alcohol was illegal in the U.S., Caesar’s Restaurant became a popular watering hole and dining spot for Hollywood’s rich and famous, who traveled to Tijuana to avoid the press and drink and gamble on the horses at Caliente Racetrack. Hotel Caesar, the hotel above the closed restaurant, remains open.