As politicians tighten belts, restaurants must do same: President Fox shuns traditional five-hour lunches in favor of more corporate hours.

In times gone by, Mexican politicians ate like lions. They drank the finest wines from foreign lands. They savored caviar and buttered snails, and when their palates dried, they frolicked in Italian vineyards once again. At the supper table, PRI politicians rose to great heights. They had no rival, and had no shame.

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During the PRI regime, politicians ate at Mexico City's finest restaurants, and did so on the public's dime. As the PRI gorged, the nation bled. Like all good things, their feast had to end. President Fox and the National Action Party (PAN) arrived, and so ended the glory and the gluttony of an earlier era.

Today, Mexican politicians are thin eaters compared to their predecessors. They eat less because they have shallower pockets. President Fox, with his corporate background and awareness of bottom lines, has cut back on restaurant budgets in federal agencies. This is good for the nation's coffers, but not good for the nation's restaurants, which have felt the pinch of Fox's fiscal grip.

"In the last three years, Mexican restaurants have lost an estimated 30 billion pesos (US$3 billion) of revenue," said Rafael Saavedra, president of Canirac, Mexico's National Restaurant Industry Chamber. "In recent years, we have been the target of fiscal legislation which has led to these adverse circumstances."

In fact, the hard times began for luxury restaurants in Mexico City a decade ago when Congress passed a law that prohibited politicians and businessmen from declaring meals as tax deductions. Congressmen aimed to rein in the excesses of PRI politicians at mealtimes, and in the process took a bite out of restaurant revenue. Today, restaurant owners hope to capture the ear, and stomach, of Fox's more rational administration, and have been lobbying to overturn the law.

"We hope to recover 100 percent of tax deductibility," said Fernando del Moral, president of the Mexican Restaurant Association. "Our argument is that if meals are deductible, the client will ask for a receipt, and the restaurant will pay taxes and the customer will pay IVA. Restaurants will have more people consuming and the government more taxpayers."

But the argument does not seem to be working.

The ghost of PRI largesse remains fresh in the nation's political memory. In 2002, the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) successfully passed legislation to place a 5-percent luxury tax on all meals eaten in fine restaurants. That was a hard year for restaurant owners. According to Canirac, restaurants saw 18 percent of their business drop.

Although the PRD's luxury tax was overturned the following year, restaurants are just beginning to creep toward what they consider to be recovery under a PAN administration.

This year, restaurants have seen their first signs of growth, 3.5 percent over last year.

"The tendency is good," said Saavedra. "The growth is due to external factors ... the recover of the U.S. economy, the price of oil, which means more money from Pemex. Remittances from the United States are 20 percent greater, which is fresh money."

This is good news for restaurants, but it does not mean that luxury restaurants will see the type of political spending witnessed during the PRI years.

PAN DINERS ARE MORE RESTRAINED

Coming heavily from the private sector, politicians from the PAN are much more conscious of budget restraints, fiscal discipline and accountability. They also tend to be more fluent with foreign cuisine, and are apt to eat at internationally known franchises.

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"The old habits of four- and five-hour lunches are not seen anymore," said Jonathon McCarthy, director of Fonatur, a federal tourism agency. "In the old regime, you'd never be seen leaving the office before 10 at night. Today, you can expect a call from Los Pinos at 9 in the morning, but rarely after 8 at night.

"We've moved to a more executive-type schedule. President Fox also understands we have a wife and family."

Under Fox's government, not only is there less money to spend on food, but politicians' eating habits have changed. While the PRI ate in the city center in exclusive restaurants removed from public view, the PAN prefers to eat in the restaurants of five-star hotels where they are seen by the public, but remain safe from kidnapping and carjackings.

"People perceive that within a hotel they are in a safe environment," McCarthy said. "Politicians believe hotels are safer places and there is a great diversity of restaurants, and where else can you rub elbows with other politicians than in the lobby of a hotel while waiting for your car?"

In recent years, hotels like the Presidente Intercontinental and El Camino Real have opened finer restaurants with more renowned chefs. Capitalizing on the capital's crime scare, hotels have improved their dining areas and increased their security detail. The Presidente Intercontinental has imported franchises of famous European and U.S. restaurants like Au Pied de Cochon, Alfredo Di Roma, and The Palm.

The hotel El Camino Real has followed suit, opening a franchise of Le Cirque, a restaurant offering international cuisine which is based in New York and Las Vegas.

At the same time, restaurants in the city center have suffered from the lack of political customers. Restaurants like El Estoril, El Passy, Les Moustaches and Champs Elysees in the Zona Rosa, busy a decade ago, have all lost political clientele and have suffered from the fall of the PRI.

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LOOK FOR POLITICIANS IN POLANCO

But other areas have gained, mainly Polanco, which is a convenient meeting point that falls between the city center and the growing corporate district of Santa Fe in the southern end of the city.

In Santa Fe, the rise of corporate influence has brought with it the demand for fine cuisine. Too far from the city center and conveniently removed from government offices. Santa Fe draws from a more corporate clientele and has not the fame of lunch hour dramas. Near the corporate buildings, some of the more upscale restaurants are the Suntory, Altamira and the Hunan.

But the restaurants most frequented by political heavy weights are those in Polanco. Apart from the hotel restaurants there are others such as Hacienda de los Morales ("You'll be sure to find two or three or four familiar faces from the political arena there," McCarthy said), El Estoril and Sir Winston Churchill's.

As Fox's political machinery takes on the appearance of a normal working day, late-night dinners are also being replaced with working breakfasts at hotels. Today, it is more common for politics and business to be discussed over breakfast because breakfast is cheaper than supper.

As for Fox, his Cabinet members say he is not big on eating out, at least not in the fashion of the PRIistas. He has been seen at the Alfredo Di Roma in the Presidente Intercontinental, and the Cafe de Tacuba (a nice old colonial place in the Centro Historico), and the Hacienda de los Morales.

According to one of his Cabinet ministers: "Fox likes to go out and go to places where he's seen, but he's not a regular at any one restaurant."

But for those who are looking for ambience reminiscent of the old-style political dining--rich in tequila and staggering finales--there are still a few cantina restaurants where women are held at bay and meals extend through the haze of intoxication. They include El Bosque and El Mirador, both located in a tucked away corner of a little known alley in a forgotten area of San Miguel de Chapultepec. Another is El Centenario, in the city's Historic Center.

Graham Gori is a freelance journalist based in Mexico City.

Photos by Pablo Anieli