Casa del Café

Coffee and breakfast at a Belén guest house

Casa del Café works as the coffee side of a historic guest house in Belén, in Costa Rica’s Heredia province. The offer is straightforward, coffee and breakfast, taken in a house rather than in a purpose-built café room. It is a walk-in place, casual in dress and in pace, and it serves the people staying upstairs as readily as anyone arriving from the road.

A garden, a terrace and a quiet hour

The setting does most of the work. There is a garden and a terrace, which is where the coffee is best taken, and the house keeps the register domestic rather than commercial. This is a local, unhurried stop, not a specialty bar with a roasting programme to explain or a long drinks board to work through.

How to use it

Treat Casa del Café as a coffee-and-breakfast stop rather than a menu-led destination. Come for a cup and the first meal of the day, take it outside if the weather allows, and set expectations on a guest-house kitchen: simple, local and unhurried.