Fiesta de Reyes
Strolling around Fiesta de Reyes the other night, I found it easy to believe that it’s poised for rebirth. Back in the early 1970s, San Diego businesswoman Diane Powers created the Bazaar del Mundo here (in the northeast corner of Old Town State Historic Park ), and for more than 30 years it drew hordes of happy locals and free-spending tourists. But in 2005, the State of California terminated Powers’ lease and gave the concession to the Delaware North corporation. The hospitality and food-service monster promised to make the place more historically accurate, share more of the revenue generated in Old Town with the state, and plow big bucks into various park upgrades.
Problem was: the changeover angered and alienated many long-time fans of the Bazaar, and as the re-named Plaza del Pasado grew drabber, tourists also stopped putting it on their Must-See list. After almost 4 years, with revenues a fraction of what they had been under Powers’ direction, Delaware North had had enough. Although Powers couldn’t be enticed back, Chuck Ross, the San Diego businessman who agreed to run the concession, has been faithfully restoring her winning formula.
Hence the brightly colored umbrellas that once covered the open-air tables at the east end of the plaza are back, along with mariachi music, folkloric dancers, and some of the well-loved local merchants (Geppetto’s, La Panaderia, Designs in Shell) who left under the managerial carpetbaggers. The Plaza del Pasado moniker is out. (The new name, Fiesta de Reyes, means Festival of Kings). Ross has also renamed the Jolly Boy Saloon; now it’s Barra Barra Saloon, which he translated for a recent visitor as “Bar, Bar.”
Other merchants in the complex include the Temecula Olive Oil Company, Hacienda de las Rosas (a tasting room featuring local San Diego wines), a Mexican spice shop, Mexican jewelry and pottery. It feels a lot like the old Bazaar del Mundo, and that in turn always reminded me of a sanitized version of Avenida Revolucion in Tijuana — one that was closer to central San Diego and didn’t require spending hours in border-crossing traffic. With drug-related violence now driving away an estimated 90% of the tourists who flocked across the border in 2001, Ross and his Fiesta de Reyes seem perfectly positioned to capitalize on all that demand for happy Mexican shopping and dining experiences. They may even be joined by some genuine Tijuana refugees. One of the San Diego Professional Tour Guide Association members just sent out an e-mail mentioning that a well-loved silver merchant named Flavio, who used to operate across from the Tijuana bus station, has opened a stand across from O’Hungry’s on Old Town’s main drag.
