When Your Favorite Latin American Restaurant Gets Shot Up

Well over a year ago (or almost 2 years ago?), I remember visiting a restaurant in Pedregal de Santo Domingo area of Mexico City.

There was some place I always enjoyed going to that served a pretty solid hamburger.

Which, as a side point, if I find a place in Mexico that serves burgers VERY well, I'm a returning customer!

I'll tell you now that I could tell you EXACTLY where to get the best burgers in Mexico City all across this entire place.

Since I've moved around a lot to various neighborhoods, there's select spots around the city far from each other that I still know exactly how to get to despite not having been back in months or even a year or more because it stood out to me how great their burgers were.

Truthfully, I don't find that the average Mexican knows how to make a great burger.

A decent or OK one?

Sure!

But a great one?

You got to keep your eyes open.

With time, if you like a good burger just as much as I do, you'll remember where those spots are.

So, one day after the blue, I chose to go to some random place for a burger in Pedregal de Santo Domingo.

With burger in hand and a drink to enjoy it with, I finish my meal.

Give the guy a tip.

And he puts his hand up and says in English (after a second pausing to think how to say it): "th -- tha-- thank you!"

While I tend to sometimes find it annoying when locals try to speak English with me, I let it go this time.

After all, can't start beef with the burger guy, you know?

He's supposedly to be cooking the beef!

Bad jokes aside, I carry along and that was it.

Roll the clock a few weeks.

And I'm back in the area looking for the hamburger guy but he's not there!

Since then, I showed up a few times but still couldn't find him.

In fact, I since moved back to Pedregal de Santo Domingo and, last I checked, he's still not there.

Used to be not too far of a walk from my gym but, for some odd reason, he disappeared.

Truth be told, I actually have no idea what happened to him or why he stopped making burgers.

The guy, to be fair, was a tiny bit on the older side so maybe he just retired.

But, at some point, I remember learning about a shooting in the area.

I tend to join Facebook groups of neighborhoods I move to in Mexico City mostly in case I want to buy or sell something.

As of late, nobody seems interested in buying my old gym weights that I don't need anymore given how small they are but that's beside the point!

Anyway, I remember finding out scrolling through one of the Facebook groups I'm part of where someone posted a comment about a shooting in Pedregal de Santo Domingo.

I looked at the comments and, based on what I could tell, the shooting happened LITERALLY at the exact same spot where the dude was selling his hamburgers.

Now, to be fair, I don't think the old man got shot.

He was old.

And, based on what people were saying, it was apparently a younger man who got shot (and killed?).

Right at around the exact spot that I'd hang out at to grab that delicious burger.

Even though I saw that, it didn't stop me from going back to see if he is serving his burgers there again.

I'm loyal to a motherfucker who can make a good burger!

Gang shootings?

I'm willing to risk my life TO GET THAT BURGER!

Fuck you and your bullets -- I want the burger, damn it!

But, to be fair, it wasn't like I was showing up the literal day after the shooting happened.

Like I said, I gave it a few weeks because I didn't feel like eating his food again for a week or two and that's when I showed up again.

And, if we're being honest, what's the likelihood that another shooting in that EXACT spot would happen again?

Probably not much!

While I have no idea why the young kid got shot, I can only guess maybe it was a failed mugging or maybe he was part of another gang or group that one other group wanted to fuck up?

Maybe he failed to pay derecho de piso (rental fee)?

Who knows!

The Facebook comment section I read didn't mention a motive for why the kid got killed.

So your guess is as good as mine.

Having said that, I know of another example of something like this happening.

A Shooting in Sinaloa

Many odd months ago (maybe a year by now?), a friend of mine named Blayde traveled to Sinaloa.

Truth be told, the dude travels a lot more than I do within Mexico.

He makes bank.

And so he decided to take a little vacation to the Mexican state of Sinaloa and spend a few weeks or maybe a month it was away from Mexico City.

And, on his Facebook, he ended up talking about something that left him with a crazy impression.

Where basically he found some cool restaurant in Sinaloa (it was either in the city of Mazatlan or Culiacan but I don't remember) and he went to the place a few times.

At some point, he found out that the restaurant isn't available in the moment when he went back for Round 3 or Round 4 because there was a shooting that took place.

From what he understood of the situation (and he wasn't there when it happened), basically some dude(s) walked into the place, shot the owner and got the fuck out.

Oddly enough, he didn't feel like eating there again after he learned that.

Still, I see opportunities if I'm being fair here.

After all, let's say you eat there again and ANOTHER shooting happens?

Surely the food and drinks are on the house if it comes with witnessing another murder right?

When you sprint out with food and drinks in hand, is the waiter REALLY going to chase after you demanding his 10% tip (25% if you're a gringo)?

PROBABLY NOT.

Not a bad idea to get a free meal!

And, for those broke backpackers living on 5 dollars a day, that free meal and drinks matter!

Anyway, it is what it is.

Final Thoughts

Thankfully, I never had any other moments where I knew of a place I ate at having gunshots nearby or at it.

Nor do I know of any other friends who have gone to a restaurant only to have the owner get his brains blown out the day or so after.

Not that I can remember anyway!

I have had other moments though with gunshots in the distance of my apartment, a shooting that took once outside of my place in Copilco area, etc.

But nothing involving another restaurant, street food spot, etc!

And it's an odd detail to life down here in some respects.

Granted, shootings happen all over the world (including the US).

An odd detail for me anyway.

Back home, I never had that "odd moment" where a place you just ate at experienced a shooting (especially not with the owner killed).

It's a certain oddity that, if we're being honest, I don't THINK will impact your life down here as what's the likelihood that it happens to a place you are eating at?

But, as you can see here, shit just happens and you might be in the wrong place like at this resort.

Tulum Shooting: 2 Dead, Multiple Injured After Shooting In Mexico

Unfortunate for the people in the video above.

And equally unfortunate for those caught in the fire of a shooting at a random bar on April 27, 2022 in Mexico here (this shooting happened very recently).

"Tras estacionar el sedán color azul, los sujetos ingresaron al local y se dirigieron hasta donde se encuentraba Alberto, de 37 años, a quien le dispararon en cinco ocasiones."

" La ejecución ocurrió frente a algunos parroquianos que se encontraban en el lugar, quienes al escuchar los disparos se tiran al piso para evitar salir heridos."

Shit like that -- when it happens even if you aren't there -- does make you think "what if I was there?"

But it is what it is.

Nothing else to say on the matter.

If you got any comments, drop them below.

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Thanks for reading.

Best regards,

Matt