Cafés in Coyoacán

El Jarocho, on the corner since 1953

Gil Romero and Bertha Paredes ran a shop on Calle Aguayo that sold seeds, grains and fruit brought from Veracruz.³ Gil gave neighbors coffee in ceramic cups before deciding to sell it, and the first El Jarocho opened in 1953 at the corner of Cuauhtémoc and Allende.² Their son Víctor Romero, who had watched the coffee vendors in the Zócalo, decided the city needed coffee bars, and the business got one of the first industrial coffee machines in Mexico.³

It had four tables by 1970 and switched from ceramic cups to disposable ones around 1980. The original branch still has no seating, and a queue forms outside.² In 2017 Chilango reported that it roasted coffee every morning, sold about 5,000 drinks each weekend and kept sixty teas and tisanes alongside tortas de milanesa.³ The El Jarocho on Malintzin opens daily from 06:00 to 23:00, and the one at División del Norte 2761 is open 24 hours.

Around the Jardín Centenario and Francisco Sosa

Francisco Sosa, the old Calle Real, was renamed Santa Catarina and then Benito Juárez before taking its present name, and INAH, the national heritage institute, has catalogued 65 historic structures along it.¹ Aurelia is at number 202. Near the Centenario, El Mundo del Café at Calle Centenario 33 opens daily from 07:00 to 23:00.

Café Avellaneda, at Higuera 40, is run by Carlos de la Torre and Yarismeth Barrientos, who have won awards in Mexico and abroad, and is counted among the pioneers of specialty coffee in Mexico.⁶ It works with Mexican growers, serves horchata with cold brew, and sells bags of coffee from producers across the country under its Café con Jiribilla project.⁶ It opens daily from 08:00 to 22:00, as does Café Ruta de la Seda at Aurora 1 Bis, which a 2018 guide recommended for its teas, matcha drinks and desserts.⁷

Books and coffee on Miguel Ángel de Quevedo

The first Librería Gandhi opened on 27 June 1971 at Miguel Ángel de Quevedo 128, in 150 square meters, founded by the theater promoter Mauricio Achar. It soon added a café, a gallery and a theater forum, and by 2021 the chain had 43 bookshops in 13 states.⁵

The avenue still pairs books with coffee. Marabunta café + librería, at number 485c, served Veracruz coffee and artisan chocolate in a literary setting in 2018, and Cafetzalli, at 616, specialized in coffee from Chiapas and was recommended for its café de olla.⁷ Marabunta opens Monday to Saturday from 07:00 to 23:00. Café La Victoria and El café de los sentidos are on the same avenue.

Copilco and the university side

The Ciudad Universitaria of the UNAM was built in the 1950s on El Pedregal, an old lava field in Coyoacán, and completed in 1954. It became a World Heritage Site in 2007, and Juan O’Gorman’s murals cover every side of the Biblioteca Central. Copilco is one of the two Metro stations that lead to the campus, and print shops near it bind students’ theses.⁴

Copilco has early openers. Café Rébora, on Calle Odontología, opens at 07:00 on weekdays and stays open until 21:30, and the Cooperativa Las 400 voces on Alfonso Pruneda opens from 07:00 to 21:00, Monday to Saturday. Café y Té Quiero is on Calle Arquitectura, and El Gato Literato is on Avenida Copilco.

Getting to Coyoacán on Metro Line 3

Metro Line 3 runs south through the borough with stations at Coyoacán, Viveros/Derechos Humanos, Miguel Ángel de Quevedo, Copilco and Universidad; the stretch from Zapata to Universidad opened on 30 August 1983.⁸ The Museo Frida Kahlo, the Casa Azul, is on Calle Londres, in the house where Kahlo was born in 1907.¹ On weekends, Café del Barrio stays open until 23:00 on Fridays and Saturdays.