Cafebrería El Péndulo
This incredible chain of Mexico City bookstores often has multi-story floorplans with café and restaurant services. The seven sites spread across the city all have an adequate supply of visual candy in the form of hardwood floors, balconies with curving green handrails, and living plants that appear to protrude from the shelves. These shops will pique your interest or, at the very least, provide you with something to look at while you stir your coffee.
New titles or reproductions of older Spanish and English books and music (CD and vinyl) covered in plastic wrap are common products for sale. Designer items with Mexican and literary themes abound in the stores' gift areas, such as porcelain luchador-themed salt and pepper shakers or plush toys of William Shakespeare. Expect to dig through dusty crates of trash and treasure rather than ancient, rare books in these upscale places.
Two venues are modest, single-story cafebrerías in the Santa Fe and Perisur shopping malls. The locations in the neighbouring Roma and Condesa neighbourhoods have 2-story floorplans in former art deco homes. The eating gets less formal on each story of the Central Zona Rosa location on Hamburgo Street, with table dining on the ground floor, sofas and reading for the café on the first floor and a bar on the second.
The Centro Cultural Helénico theatre's mid-south San Angel location also has intriguing architectural characteristics throughout its three wooden-panelled levels, including a very tall palm tree that grows through the entire building height.
Every store has a distinct opening hour, but all will be open between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Menu changes are common across all locations; however, all continue to provide at least a few vegan and vegetarian alternatives.
