The history of this emblematic enclave of the Clavería neighborhood began in 1957. That year, Raymundo Vázquez decided to open a neighborhood cafeteria and shortly after his wife María Elena Lugo began to collaborate with him to integrate a menu of homemade and ancestral food. Thanks to the use of recipes that came to her through her mother and grandmother, the cafeteria ended up becoming a restaurant and during the following decades, Vázquez and Lugo dedicated themselves to researching and promoting traditional Mexican food, documenting recipes from all over the world. country states.
For María Elena, the main lessons learned throughout Nicos’s 65 years of life have been perseverance, the ability to correct to create things different from those that had already been done and, above all, constant experimentation. Part of this journey – the last 25 years to be more specific – has been hand in hand with his son Gerardo Vázquez Lugo, who is currently in charge of the restaurant and with whom he has planned and carried out remodeling of the premises and the integration of new recipes.
Today, the focus is on the plans for the coming months and years and on continuing to promote Mexican gastronomy and traditional techniques while they are reinvented through better cultivation, breeding and production practices. In recent years, Nicos has promoted work with local producers to guarantee the quality of the ingredients and reduce the environmental impact of their operation, a task that will continue to be one of their priorities.
The restaurant continues to expand and strengthen its relationships with local producers in various states of the country, such as Michoacán, Puebla and Morelos, to mention a few, with practically all the ingredients that are used on the table: vegetables, proteins –pork, chicken, beef– , fruits and even tea or coffee. The idea, says Vázquez Lugo, is the search for sustainable cuisine and local products. Regarding seafood, they have started working with Oceana, the organization that emerged in 2001 and whose purpose is to conserve the oceans. In a joint effort to expose the traceability of seafood, Nicos has committed to the cause of this NGO to reduce unfair species substitution practices through timely tracking of marine protein.
This will have a direct effect on the diner, who will be able to know the origin of what they consume at the restaurant table. In 2023, chef Gerardo Vázquez will participate in advising new spaces in Bogotá, Colombia; the opening of a new restaurant in Mexico City in partnership with Maizajo – the research and commercialization project for criollo corn products in the capital – and the opening of a personal project in the city’s Historic Center.
The purpose is to take Nicos’ teachings to other places to promote better practices from the kitchen, preserve recipes, take care of sustainability and even work on the issue of waste and social justice. Long live Nicos!