Érase un Café

Érase un Café is a coffee shop on Calle de la Tablada in San Diego, inside the walled city. Food & Pleasure picked it in its 2024 list of the five coffee shops in Cartagena worth knowing, alongside Libertario and Época, calling it one of the most beautiful in the city, largely because of its interior, which keeps a classic style that has been carefully preserved.

Coffee is taken seriously here. The menu is wide, and the café prepares its coffee using a range of filter methods, which makes it a good place to try Colombian beans brewed in different ways and compare the results. If you are not sure what to choose, ask the staff to recommend a method for the coffee of the day.

Food is the other draw. The café serves breakfasts and meals that put the spotlight on regional flavours and local ingredients, according to Food & Pleasure, so it works as a breakfast stop before a day of sightseeing as well as an afternoon break. Combined with the setting, it makes for an unhurried stop.

It suits couples, solo travellers and anyone staying in San Diego who wants a local breakfast spot within a short walk of their hotel. Bantú, the boutique hotel in an 18th-century house run by Faranda Hotels, is almost opposite on the same street, and San Diego also has the Plaza de San Diego, with Juan del Mar and La Cevichería, and the Sofitel Legend Santa Clara, so it is easy to fit into a morning in this part of town. Las Bóvedas and the walls are also within walking distance.

Opening hours are not published on an official website we could verify, so check locally or on the café's Instagram account, @eraseuncafecartagena, before you go. The phone number published by Food & Pleasure is +57 319 585 0578. Allow 30 minutes to an hour, depending on whether you stay for breakfast. Food & Pleasure also notes that coffee in Colombia is grown at altitudes above 1,500 metres, and Érase un Café's filter menu is a good way to taste the results.