Two houses on a tree-lined street in Roma Norte opened their doors as one hotel on November 1. Sara y Julieta takes its name from two women who shaped this Mexico City neighborhood a century ago, and it keeps the buildings they knew: a pair of Porfirian residences built between 1903 and 1911, restored rather than replaced.
The hotel has 22 rooms and suites, which is small even by boutique standards. One house holds the public life of the place, the lobby, the restaurants, and the bars. The other is given over to quiet: guestrooms, a small spa, and rooms that face inward toward patios and light. Rates start at $540 a night.
Two Women, Two Houses
Sara Pérez de Madero was the wife of President Francisco Madero and a women’s rights advocate remembered as the First Lady of the Revolution. Julieta Bastard kept a different kind of house in Roma Norte, a salon where artists and intellectuals gathered. The hotel’s own history notes that David Alfaro Siqueiros was among her guests.
HOST Architecture & Design kept the bones of both residences visible: high ceilings, tall windows, moldings, marble. The split between the houses follows the two women. The social house carries Pérez, the ground-floor fine dining restaurant named for Sara, and Bastard, a speakeasy-style bar named for Julieta, plus a rooftop omakase counter. The quiet house carries the wellness side of the property.
The dining tells the same story as the architecture. Pérez cooks fine dining with Mexican roots and pays its own tribute, to the first ladies who once lived in Roma Norte. Bastard leans the other way, toward the neighborhood’s bohemian years, discreet from the street and lively inside. The omakase counter on the roof seats a handful of guests at a time.
The Rooms
Five categories run from the Alcoba guestrooms to a Grand Suite of 775 square feet with hand-painted wallpaper, a private living area, and a bathroom built around a soaking tub and a double shower. Three Mirador Suites have private rooftop terraces looking over Roma Norte. Select Premium rooms have balconies.
Breakfast is deliberately light: coffee, tea, pastries, and yogurt served in the Living Room, a guests-only lounge with a small patio where the staff also plan itineraries. The spa has two treatment rooms, a thermal circuit with a sauna and cold plunge pool, and lymphatic treatments. The gym equipment is by Technogym.
Why It Belongs on a Mexico City Trip
Roma Norte is the neighborhood travelers already walk for its restaurants, galleries, and independent shops. Condesa and Parque México are a 10-minute walk away, and the airport is about 30 minutes by car. Sara y Julieta is operated by Hamak Hotels, which has run small luxury properties in Mexico and Latin America for more than 15 years, and it opens as a member of Leading Hotels of the World.
The announcement is on Hospitality Net. What the announcement cannot convey is the thing Roma Norte does best: a century-old house, kept standing, put back to work receiving guests.
On its first mornings, the Living Room fills with coffee and pastry while the street outside starts up. The houses waited out a hundred years of the city’s changes. They are hosting again.
The Social Register’s event directory tracks the season’s galas, benefits, and society evenings. Plan your next evening there.
