Restaurant with History

I just finished travelling for business in Guadalajara, Mexico and had lunch yesterday at a wonderful restaurant in the old city: La Fonda de San Miguel Arcangel. The restaurant is housed in an old convent, the Convent of Santa Teresa de Jesus. The orginial convent was built for sisters of an order devoted to poverty and chastity. Construction took place from 1690 to 1694. This is the oldest convent for nuns in Guadalajara and was funded through an endowment of 42,000 solid gold pesos. The site has a very volatile history. The sisters had to abandon the site in 1860 due to reform laws and the site was later a garrison for the military. The sisters regained the site in 1885 only to have it taken from them again in 1914. Undeterred, they got the site back in 1919. In 1925, the sisters lost the site again as a military garrison during the Cristeros War. Finally, in 1939 the sisters could return and there they stayed until the site was abandoned in 1977.

I am not sure when the site became a restaurant, but it is very nice. There is a long, dark corridor from the street to the courtyard of the convent where a number of brightly colored seats surround many tables.



There is a lot of lush greenery in the courtyard and a relaxing stone fountain in the middle. Bird cages are all over the edges with a number of Conures and two, large, green and teal maccaws. The birds have free reign of the site, but the clipped wings prevent flight. The telltale shrieks add some charm to the place.



The meals are excellent and traditional (read: not Mexican American). The main course I had was the local fajita. The only resemblance that this had to an American fajita was the tortillas. The chicken was grilled and then mixed in with onions, peppers, and radishes in a rich broth and baked in a small cauldron. It had the look of some kind of volcanic rock. The salsas that were brought to the table were rich and varied with several levels of hotness. Between the meal and the ambiance, this is a great place to spend a couple of hours in Guadalajara.