Before Frida Kahlo was an icon, she was a cook. Her famous Blue House in Coyoacán — La Casa Azul — had a kitchen painted the same cobalt that now runs around our bar. She filled it with her clay pots, her guajolote platters, her hand-embroidered tablecloths and a husband called Diego who couldn't be trusted around the chorizo.
A house of colour, a table of abundance
Kahlo's dinner parties were legend. She served mole, pozole, tinga, chiles en nogada painted red, white and green for the Mexican flag. Her guests included Trotsky, Rivera, Picasso, Nelson Rockefeller and half the revolutionaries in Mexico City. The food was as much of a statement as her paintings: Mexican, unapologetic, rooted in the earth.
What we took from her
When we opened on Camden High Street in 2011, we didn't want to build a Tex-Mex restaurant or a tequila tourist trap. We wanted to build what Kahlo built: a kitchen that honours where Mexican food actually comes from — the pueblos, the mercados, the grandmothers. We cover our walls with her colour palette: cobalt blue, marigold yellow, blood red, jade green.
We named cocktails after her paintings. We light marigold candles on Día de los Muertos. And when a guest asks why we're called Frida, we tell them this story.
Come see her spirit
Our mural wall in the main dining room was painted by a Camden local in the style of La Casa Azul's courtyard. Book a table next to it and order the chiles en nogada — the closest we get to cooking for her in person.
