« The Caféothèque is where the coffee revolution in Paris first kicked off seven years ago, created by the doyenne of ‘coffeology’ Gloria Montenegro, a former Ambassador of Guatemala, today an unofficial ambassador for quality coffee from all over the world. Gloria goes at least twice a year to visit coffee producers in South America and Africa.
The café is next door to a vast artist’s residence, La Cité Internationale des Arts, which ensures a lively cosmopolitan clientele, while its picture-postcard location on the banks of the Seine means tourists are always dropping by as well. From the outside the café looks quite poky, but once inside you discover a rabbit’s warren of intimate salons — one wall lined with dozens of drawers containing their stock of unroasted coffee beans from all over the world. The biggest surprise is the last room which boasts a mur végétal tropical with 20 different coffee plants growing out of the wall. »