Café La Habana, Mexico City, Mexico

Café La Habana, Avenida Morelos, Juárez, Cuauhtémoc, CDMX, Mexico
Nothing much to look at from the outside, Cafe La Habana is a massive one room cafe serving cheap, plentiful meals and thick, black coffee that goes down like rocket fuel and keeps you coming back for more. This spot has played host to many a famed writer grappling with the brusque service and writers block, including the world renowned Gabriel Garcia Marquez. But it’s not so much the literary connection that has me traipsing through the door but one that the name might rather hint at for, within these unspectacular walls, Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and Fidel Castro would come to chain smoke and drink the black tar coffee whilst planning the Cuban Revolution during their Mexican exile. I have no such history altering aims but merely wish to while away a few hours whilst battling only my sub-par Spanish. Viva la revolucion!

The coffee is that bitter coffee that really gives you a punch in the gut to start the day, a real get up and go type of drink! Bags of beans are available but I fear the real coffee enthusiast might opt for one of the more trendier places popping up around the place rather than this throwback to something altogether more communal but seemingly a little outdated, which is a shame because the history alone should be enough to make it well worth a visit.