The best cafés in Laureles
You are in the country that grows the coffee. Laureles is where Medellín drinks it — on terraces, next to laptops, and occasionally with a cat on the next chair.
Laureles does not have a single "café street" the way it has La 70 for nightlife. Its coffee is spread across the neighborhood, which is the point: you find your café the way residents do, by walking until one looks right. What follows is the shortlist, split by what you actually came to do.
If you came to work
Café Revolución is the unofficial clubhouse of the neighborhood's remote workers, and the one name that comes up in every conversation about coffee here. Good baristas, a famous chai, and — the part that matters at 3pm on a Tuesday — WiFi that holds up.
Semilla Café solves a different problem: it is a coffee shop downstairs and day-pass coworking upstairs, with unlimited coffee included. If you have a deadline rather than a laptop habit, start here.
Café Torbellino, on the Conquistadores edge, has a back patio that doubles as a plant nursery. It is laptop-friendly and vegan-friendly, and the greenery makes a long working afternoon feel like a shorter one.
Café etiquette for laptop people: buy something every couple of hours, give up the big table at lunch, and do not expect an outlet at every seat. None of this is enforced. All of it is noticed.
If you came for the coffee itself
Libertario Coffee Roasters on Diagonal 75 is the most serious cup in the neighborhood: a roaster with house blends named PAZ and PUNK, poured at the bar, plus a full brunch menu behind it. There is a board on the wall that keeps a running count of the CO₂ their coffee program has pulled back out of the air, which is either the nerdiest or the most encouraging thing you will read over breakfast. Open from 7am.
Juan Valdez is not the most artisanal cup on this list and does not pretend to be. It is Colombia's own institution, run by the national coffee growers' federation, and it belongs on the list because every visitor should have one at least once — preferably while looking at the man on the logo.
If you came to tardear
Tardear has no clean English translation. It means to spend the afternoon — plural, unhurried, usually with something to eat and no plan to leave. It is a paisa competency and Laureles is good at it.
Terracota Panadería was built for exactly this, with a plant-framed terrace on Transversal 39D. Their own slogan says it better than we can: tardear es con T de Terracota.
La Baguette Brunch & Lunch sits at the top of the Torre Gourmet stack, above the neon — the daytime face of a block that mostly wakes up after dark.
If you came for something else entirely
La Gatoria is the neighborhood's cat café: good coffee, afternoon snacks, and resident cats moving between the tables. It is exactly as charming as it sounds, and it is a genuinely good idea on a rainy afternoon.
Freshy Tasty on Carrera 76 is not coffee at all — it is a small smoothie bar with a green neon sign, zero-sugar smoothies, fruit bowls and gluten-free snacks. After a week of bandeja paisa, you will understand why it is on this page. Pet friendly, two sidewalk tables.
What a coffee costs
A specialty espresso or cappuccino in Laureles generally runs in the low thousands of pesos, and a full brunch plate considerably more — but prices move, and menus change faster than we update this page. Treat any figure you read online as a rough guide and check the board at the door. What we can tell you is that the same cup costs noticeably less here than in El Poblado, which is true of almost everything in this comparison.
Quick answers
Which café in Laureles is best for working on a laptop?
Café Revolución for reliable WiFi and a room full of people doing the same thing, Semilla Café if you want an actual coworking desk with unlimited coffee, and Café Torbellino if you would rather work on a plant-filled patio.
Is there specialty coffee in Laureles, or just chains?
Both. Libertario Coffee Roasters on Diagonal 75 roasts its own and is the most serious cup in the neighborhood; Café Revolución and Café Torbellino are independent specialty spots; Juan Valdez is the national chain, and worth one visit for what it represents.
Is there a cat café in Laureles?
Yes. La Gatoria is Laureles' cat café, with resident cats, good coffee and afternoon snacks.
What time do cafés open in Laureles?
Most open between 7am and 9am. Libertario opens at 7am, which makes it the reliable choice if you are up early or working on a northern-hemisphere schedule.
While you're here: the neighborhood directory
Every spot in this guide is one we've been to ourselves. 42 places in Laureles, each one tap from directions.