Jorge Pardo’s Travel Picks for Merida, Mexico

PARDO’S PICKS

“I made friends with the city’s chefs because they are the creative types here,” says Pardo, an accomplished cook himself. One of his favorite restaurants is Néctar, where chef Roberto Solis employs French and Japanese techniques on local ingredients. “He’s very close with Noma’s René Redzepi, who spends time here every year,” says Pardo. He recommends sitting at the bar, which offers a front-row view of the chefs at work in the kitchen, and ordering the black onion rings. “They’re made with this burnt chili spice that they burn, burn, burn until it’s black ash.” (Pardo and Solis are teaming up to open a restaurant in 2020.) If he’s craving tacos, Wayan’e is Pardo’s go-to.

“The Yucatecans don’t have a taco tradition—they use tortillas more as silverware,” he says. “This place makes crazy ones that are mostly salt, pork fat, and yummy stuff.” What Mérida does have is cochinita pibil, the region’s answer to American barbecue, cooked enterrado (buried). According to the artist, you’ll find the most authentic version at the traditional eatery El Principe Tutul-Xiu. “They put this red mole on it, dig a hole, and stick the pig in, wrapped in banana leaf.” When he’s in the mood for a cheap mojito, Cuban music, and an eclectic crowd, Pardo pops into La Negrita Cantina, “a Mexican place that a French guy opened with his local partner,” he says. “The Tulum types go there, and my housekeeper goes there too. You can eat mediocre things and get drunk for 10 bucks.”

If the guest rooms at his house are full, Pardo sends visitors to Casa Lecanda, a rehabbed neoclassical property with stone and marble archways, French tiles, and handcrafted Méridana hammocks. “It’s a grand colonial home by the guy who owns the Oliva restaurants,” he says. “It’s small and simple and