The original Cafe Cesar was across the street and about a block away from the present Restaurant Caesar,  towards the U.S. border on Avenida Revolution, next to the ( now long gone) Hotel Commercial. The location is now a store specializing in Art and Folk Art, operated by Elena Glez.

Cesar Cardini and his brother had both been World War I Italian Fighter Pilots. They moved to San Diego and opened Cafe Cesar across the border in Tijuana, Mexico in 1924. At that time, the Hotel Commercial boasted that it had the largest bar in the world. Sloppy Joe's in Havanna made the same claim.

In 1924 the United States did not enjoy the open nightlife that it does now. Prohibition began when the Volstead Act, and the 18th Amendment, became effective in 1919. Tijuana, just across the border from San Diego, offered beautiful avenues filled with shopping gallerias, elegant restaurants, nightclubs, and hotels, and fabulous attractions such as the Jai Alai Palace, the Aquas Caliente Racetrack, and bullfights with the world's greatest toreadors and matadors, many of whom made Cesar's a regular spot to visit. Royalty, Movie stars and other celebrities followed, often arriving in huge limousines roaring down from the U.S. It is much the same now, but without the casinos.

Cesar's Cafe became a great success, but was small. The Cardinis accepted a proposal by the Arkadians, who were from Eastern Europe, to occupy an enormous space in their new, ultra luxurious and huge hotel. The hotel would be named Caesar's and the Restaurant Caesar would take up much of the first floor on the Avenida Revolution side (it went back a block and had various stores, a big garage, and other hotel facilities on the first floor. The main lobby and a few stores were, and are on Avenida Revolution.

So it was for many years. Even in the 1980s I could walk in, across the patio cafe and into the quiet darkness of the bar, first going through a glass vestibule, and suddenly step back into the 30s and 40s. There was a large oil painting of a beautiful Mexican woman over the bar. A Margarita was 75 cents American, and the Caesar Salad, prepared at your table, was $4. It's gone up a few bucks since the eighties, but not much.

It broke my heart when I walked in one day and saw that the main dining room had been converted to an American fast food franchise-- it was like a knife to the heart! Walking into the old bar, I saw that it had been transformed to a nightmarish version of a 'sports bar' with rows of color tvs above a newly re-decorated bar.

The bar has been somewhat restored to a state of dignity, but the fast food joint still intrudes. The Cardinis sold out many years ago but the present owners do their best to maintain the high standards of a first class restaurant. They have many businesses in Tijuana and make special efforts with Caesar's. The Arkadian family still owns and operates the hotel.

It was at the original Cafe Cesar, down the street,  that Cesar Cardini invented his famous salad, apparently in a moment of desperation to throw something together for a guest from whatever he had handy when his store of food was limited. Originally called 'Aviator Salad', it became known to guests of the restaurant as 'Cesar's Salad' because it was usually prepared tableside by Cesar himself.

   The Jai Alai Palace, just a few buildings away block away from Hotel Caesar and Restaurant Caesar.

Legends: 1920s: Bullfighters, Silent Film stars, including Chaplain, Keeton, Lloyd, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford (from their place north of San Diego, now known as Fairbanks Ranch), Crown Prince Edward, Cantinflas, Lindbergh. One legend has Lindbergh laughing over his salad as he and his friends from Ryan Aircraft dreamed up a way to conceal an extra pilot in The Spirit of St. Louis. This is apparently why he kept referring to flight decisions "We" made, the morning after he landed, and why there was 'another' American pilot pulled from the plane and briefly paraded down the runway on the shoulders of the Parisians.

1930s: nazis, Bing Crosby and Jimmy Durante. Did they dream up their idea for the Del Mar Race Track over a Caesar Salad? It would mean that people could take the train down from L.A. and get off in Del Mar. No need for an automobile and a trip across the border. 1940s: Nazis again, doing business in a neutral Mexico, immigrants looking for a way to get just a few miles north. Was Caesar's the inspiration for Rick's Cafe? It looks like it, and had the more important elements of a sophisticated restaurant with a Spanish architectural scheme, Nazia, and people from all over scheming to go to America.  Manyt movie stars such as Johnny Weismuller, Dolores Del Rio, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard seemed to enjoy trips not only to Tijuana but to the more glamorous casino in Ensenada.. 1950s:  Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio. Sixties and beyond-- restaurant does not reveal the names of guests who are still living.

The eighties. Old style ruined by fast food franchise. Nineties, and some return to dignity, with back part opened as a gentlemen's club. Today...