Cafés in El Centro

Getting around the Centro

Parque Berrío station on Metro Line A is the stop for Junín.⁴ The comuna has five Line A stations, and two of its main streets are pedestrian: Carrera 49, known as Junín, and Carrera 52, known as Carabobo.¹ Café con Amor is on Carabobo, and Diostedé Café on Junín at 52-107, open daily 08:00–20:00.

Junín, the Astor and Versalles

Junín runs between the Coltejer Building and Parque Bolívar. In the mid-20th century it was the favorite boulevard of the city's elite, who came to shop, lunch or take el algo, the light meal between lunch and dinner, and the verb juniniar grew out of strolling it.⁴

The Astor began there in 1930 as a small tea salon with five tables and ten staff, opened by Enrique Baer and his wife, Anny Gippert.⁵ Its pastries include moritos, alfajores and nueces de miel,⁵ and Repostería el Astor opens 08:00–18:00 from Monday to Saturday.

Salón Versalles, on the passage since 15 August 1961,⁶ once hosted Jorge Luis Borges, Manuel Mejía Vallejo and Gonzalo Arango.⁴ It and the Astor both still stand from Junín's heyday, when the street also had the Hotel Europa, the Teatro Junín, the Unión Club and the Librería Nueva.⁴

Street tinto at Parque Berrío

Beneath Parque Berrío metro station, one stall opens at 05:00 and closes at 19:00, working two shifts. It sells about 800 flasks of tinto a day, each holding at least ten cups, enough for some 8,000 people. In 2023 a flask cost COP 2,200 and a cup COP 1,000–1,500, or whatever the customer chose to pay.⁷

Street coffee is a recognized trade here. In July 2026 the city trained 60 tinteros working in La Candelaria in coffee preparation, customer service and digital tools to promote their stands.²

Early mornings and Sundays

Mordiscos opens at 05:20 from Monday to Saturday, and Cafetería Boyacá, a block away, at 06:00, closing at 18:30. Cafeteria Mita, on Calle 58 at 54-64, serves 08:00–18:00, and Café El Arrebato, on Calle 59 at 45-70, has outdoor tables.

Sundays are thinner. In March 2024, El Colombiano found that businesses on Junín between Parque Bolívar and Calle 54 (Maracaibo) had shortened their Sunday hours or stopped opening, several citing street disorder.⁸ Versalles, which stopped opening on Sundays in June 2023, reopened on Sundays in December 2024 from 07:00 to 20:00.⁶