 Bruce and Elem
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, Elem Maria a Brazilian artist.After this meeting they came to New Zealand in 1982, 18 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 Elem Maria, typical Brazilian artist and also fallen for Mexican arts, was the perfect temper to make the Mexican Café a really exotic place.
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 Elem 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 a unique and exotic place to dine and be entertained.
In early 2005 Bruce and Elem, Toby Eaton and Jake van der Kolk decided to take the legend to the South and in May 2005 Christchurch's own Mexican Café was born. Today the Mexican Cafe Christchurch is a thriving hub of activity, bringing exotic Mexican foods and flavours to the garden city. The team are passionate about staying true to the Mex's philosophies. They work hard to ensure the consistency and quality of the food, cocktails and live music will never disappoint! Come and see for yourself what makes the Mexican Café legendary!
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