Power omelettes kill Mexico's boozy business lunch

By Catherine Bremer

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The long Mexican business lunch, a tequila-fueled food orgy that could last past sundown, is on the demise in the capital as a new generation of clean-living executives cuts back on costs and time wasting.

In an old habit as Mexican as mariachi, offices would empty for entire afternoons as employees packed into restaurants for hours-long feasts crucial for cementing business relations, even if they might leave people too drunk to sign deals.

But for the younger generation, "power breakfasts" are in vogue, with Mexico City executives meeting over a pre-work plate of scrambled eggs and getting to the office, sober, by mid-morning.

"I almost never go out for lunch with clients. Nobody does any more, we don't have time," said Carlos Cazares, a young executive at an international food and drink company.

"People do business in office visits. If anyone showed up drunk from a long lunch they likely wouldn't keep their job."

Longer-in-the-tooth businessmen still do leisurely lunches, which typically start with tequila shots and run through chile-laced soups, quesadillas, rice, steak and fish dishes, washed down with beer or wine and rounded off with liqueurs.

Extended lunches are still common away from the capital but in business areas of Mexico City, many tables are cleared by mid-afternoon as a new U.S.-inspired professionalism weeds some of the decadence and cronyism out of Mexico's business elite.

Expense accounts are more closely scrutinized, employees are held more accountable for their work hours and flashing the corporate plastic to pick up a big bar tab is no longer cool.