It started with the salsas.

At some taquerías, locals grumbled that their beloved condiments were less spicy because of the growing presence of foreigners. Then it was pizzerias opening on seemingly every corner. And third-wave coffee shops charging 100 pesos for a croissant.

The boom in global tourism since the pandemic has proved both unrelenting and unbearable to many of the people who live in destinations like Barcelona, Kyoto and Paris. Some have grown so frustrated by the influx of seasonal visitors and the strain placed on city infrastructure that they have marched in the streets and even sprayed tourists with water guns.

But in Mexico City, the visitors came quickly and many never left. Remote workers rushed to chic, central neighborhoods like Condesa, Roma Norte and Juárez seeking less expensive housing and a favorable exchange rate. From 2020 to 2023, the number of temporary residents and renewals of temporary-resident cards from the United States nearly doubled, to about 24,000, according to a report from El País.

U.S. citizens make up less than 7 percent of foreigners living in Mexico City, according to a report in the Mexican newspaper Milenio. Yet their impact has been outsize: whole swaths of Mexico City’s food scene — a point of immense pride — have been remade in the American image.

“It’s all wine bars, cocktail bars, natural wine, all these New York-style restaurants that do the same super-conceptual food where they just describe three ingredients,” said Rocio Landeta, who runs a food-tour company in Mexico City called Eat Like a Local. “At some point it doesn’t matter if you are in New York or Mexico City.”