Chiquitito Café

Chiquitito Café was one of the first specialty coffee bars in Mexico City when it opened in La Condesa in 2012. The space is small — the name means "tiny" — and the model is intentionally narrow: a single small producer in Boca del Monte, Veracruz supplies almost all of the beans, which Chiquitito roasts on its own machine and serves a few metres away.

Running the shop is a husband-and-wife team whose relationship with the Veracruz farm goes back more than a decade. That kind of long-arc sourcing — single farm, single roaster, single bar — is unusual anywhere in the world, and is part of why Chiquitito is repeatedly cited by Sprudge, Perfect Daily Grind and other specialty publications as a defining Mexico City spot.

The bar itself is unfussy. Espresso, pour-over, retail bags on a small shelf, a few seats inside and a few more on the pavement. Come for the espresso, leave with a bag of beans from a farm you can name.