Hacienda San Angel

Hacienda San Angel

There’s no need to drive to Vallarta for a great meal, given the number of first class restaurants right in San Pancho. (Café del Mar will always be my favorite, if only for sentimental reasons. Picture my 14-month old granddaughter, Anna, asleep on its stone steps, head on chubby arms. And now the head chef is another Ana, my house administrator, the talented whirlwind Ana Ruiz.)

But an evening at Hacienda San Angel is so special, you owe it to yourself to make the trip. A B&B in the heart of Vallarta’s Old Town and one of Mexico’s premier boutique hotels, it also is open to the public for dinner (reservation required; http://www.haciendasanangel.com/).

My house guests and I dress up for the occasion, which begins with complimentary cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, served in the main salon. It’s a stunning space: a long wall of niches filled with colonial antiques; another wall covered with indigo and cream talavera tiles from ceiling to floor. Throw in strumming musicians, flowing fountains, and scores of flickering squat candles, and the effect is magical. “I half expect to see Zorro swing down on the chandelier,” my son-in-law Eddie said one visit.

We are free to roam around and take a look at the indoor and outdoor swimming pools, the tropical garden, and my personal favorite, the colonial-style back kitchen I love to revisit. Then it’s upstairs for dinner in one of the open-air living rooms or outdoor terraces, overlooking the town and the crowned dome of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. The food and service are excellent, the ambience sophisticated but comfortable, the price comparable to San Pancho’s better spots. Some of my friends and family enjoy San Angel so much, they now make dinner there an annual event.