For Spanish If you've driven into the Old Port during the last six months, you may have wondered what the large building going up on the hill was. It's Latitude 31·, a new restaurant and bar in a wonderful setting, with panoramic views of the harbor and city. Although the building is new, the owners are familiar; they are Mike Riggs and Cindy Hall, who used to operate the popular Villa Las Palmas Restaurant and Sports Bar on Calle 13.
The new building is impressive in both its design and decor. A two-story circular facade faces the street, with a massive block behind it dug into the hillside. The public area is upstairs, with offices and storage space on the bottom level. As you start to ascend the entry ramp, the first thing you notice is the hand rails, which are wrapped with rope, for a nice nautical effect. The architect, mindful of physical disabilities, has provided both a stairway and a ramp.
As you enter the bar and restaurant, you face a huge tiled fireplace at the other end of the room decorated with a mosaic lizard. A large air conditioning unit is suspended from the ceiling, covered with colorful serapes upon which are mounted Mexican artifacts, making it a focus for decoration instead of a mere utilitarian necessity.
The building is built on a large scale and looks very spacious. Mike told us that there are 6000 square feet of space and that the builders used over 2000 sacks of cement in its construction. The ceiling is supported by huge laminated beams. Occasional inlaid lizard mosaics ornament the tile floors.
Marine life in various media is everywhere in evidence--an 8' swordfish mounted on one wall, a large ceramic fish hanging from a bar, a colorful underwater scene in stained glass on the round window beside the entry. To the right, as you enter, is a long bar with 5 TV monitors above it so customers can watch their favorite sporting events. Behind the bar stools are several video games and a juke box. The end of the room is rounded, with a wall of widows providing 180· views of mountain, harbor, and city. John said it reminded him of the pilot house on a ship.
When we sat down at the bar, Cindy served our drinks in elegant green-rimmed Margarita glasses. She set them on little colored mini-serapes with fringes that I thought they were very cute; I had never seen anything like them before. She told me that she had gone shopping with 7 women friends, and they had had a wonderful time buying all the furnishings for the place. When we went over to the restaurant, we saw evidence of their taste in the colorful woven placemats on each table. No two sets have the same design, but all are beautiful. The tables and chairs are equipales. Decorated clay light fixtures hang from the ceiling.
The restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In addition to the fish, shrimp, and Mexican entrees found everywhere in Puerto Peñasco, Latitude 31· features such all-American favorites as chicken wings, meat loaf, steak, hamburgers, spaghetti, and lasagne.
Whether you like sports, games, views, stunning architecture, beautiful decorations, or good food, you'll find something to satisfy you at Latitude 31·.
