Tuesday, December 7, 2021

8 Best Work Cafes in Guadalajara, Mexico



Are you a digital nomad headed to Mexico? Do you need a Guadalajara work café where you can do remote work on your laptop?

I lived in Guadalajara for 2 months in 2021. While exploring the city's best birria and mezcal, I also managed to work during the day. There are hundreds of top work cafes in Guadalajara, but these were my favorite 8 choices specifically for work. 

It took me awhile to find quality work cafes in Guadalajara. Most expat lists focus on locations in Providencia, Americana, and other expat-friendly colonias in Guadalajara. From my apartment in Santa Tere (short for Teresita) these are the places that I found the most convenient and pleasant.
  • walking distance from Santa Tere (no driving)
  • decent coffee & tasty snacks
  • comfortable seating
  • plugs available for charging your laptop
  • open-air seating or large doors/windows for fresh air

With that in mind, here is my list of the 8 best work cafes in Guadalajara, Mexico.

1. Caligari Café

photo from Facebook
Located here on Juan Manuel, this café is a heavy hitter. Excellent kitchen for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and work days. Plenty of vegetarian options for your crunchier work buddies. The quirky retro pop art décor from around the world will keep your eyes entertained on screen breaks. Meanwhile the drinks menu takes you easily from work to party. Seriously, get a vermouth to ride out that last hour on your laptop.

2. La Arepiza Bistro

photo mine
Located here near the border street Avenida Mexico between Santa Tere and Colonia Americana, this restaurant is more than just a café. Enjoy Venezuelan food on work breaks like empanadas and arepas ricas, plus imported sodas like Frescolita. Welcoming staff. 

3. Cafetería MUSA

photo from website
Located here, the coffee shop attached to the Museum of the Arts of the University of Guadalajara is all about the view. The outdoor patio faces the Universidad de Guadalajara historic building. If you love the white noise of traffic (hey you are downtown in a city of 4 million) then you will enjoy working here as much as I did. Fantastic exhibits to see on work breaks as well. Order a large drip coffee and get a free refill to fuel your longer hours.

4. Howm

photo mine
Howm is located here, beneath the Selina hostel chain's Guadalajara outpost. Stylish, dark, and spacious, here is where you can put in serious hours. The coffee menu isn't too exciting, but feel free to order a tonic and espresso to mix your own "shakerato" espresso tonic at your table. 

5. Cafetería d'Vico

image from Facebook
Locared here in Santa Tere, D'Vico was my work café of choice in Guadalajara. It was the nearest to my house and had everything I needed. The owner has a tía living in Gilroy, CA so enjoy the cute California-style vintage décor. This café feels small and bright, with its natural wood tables. They have ok coffee and very nice pan dulce sweet pastries to choose from.

6. Panadería de Barrio

photo mine
Located here in Colonia Americas on the east side of Chapultepec, this spot has very good bread and coffee. Despite uncomfortable stools in the front room, explore further to find two large communal tables in the rear. Ideal for co-working meet-ups. Also "panadería" means this is first-and-foremost an artisanal bakery. Don't skip out on a cardamom pear pastry or the special of the day. The best part? Puesto Ambulante micro-brewery's taproom is right across the street. Perfect for post-work happy hour.

7. Livin Cafe

photo mine
Located here on the edge of Parque Revolución, I stumbled across this café on the way to MiBici public bike offices in el centro one day. The spot is cute and welcoming. The waffles are decent, good espresso, and the location is convenient if you have business downtown.

8. Como Si Fuera Domingo

photo mine
Located centrally here just off Chapultepec, this café sticks out in my mind as a place where the staff left me the most alone. The second floor loft full of plugs is hidden from the rest of the world. It's a good place to hide out and fire out a few reports. Nice shakerato (espresso tonic) with rosemary and orange zest.

Best work café in Tlaquepaque: Del Corazon de la Tierra

photo mine
Bonus: If you spend the day in the nearby pueblo mágico of Tlaquepaque and need a work cafe, this place is a solid option. I stopped here for a coffee and wished I had brought my laptop. Serving Käjkape brand coffee from the nearby roaster (check their café out too) this unorthodox coffee shop sits in the middle of an elegant gift shop. What a peaceful oasis from the busy tourists filling up the roads. Relax here with an interior courtyard, complete with a fountain. Great coffee as well. 

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So that's it. My top 8 best cafe work spaces in Guadalajara plus one in Tlaquepaque.


How about you? Do you have any recommendations for work cafes around the world?






Winter 2021 Update

 

Photo by Markus Winkler from Pexels

It's nearly the end of 2021. I haven't posted an update on here in ages (what's new). I am trying to build an amazing life. Bit by bit things continue to come together. It's the journey not the destination, right?

Here goes.

Work

Work is going well. My solo SEO content & copy business AlisonMac took off. In Thailand in 2017 I was beginning to stand on my own two feet, moving away from volume ghost-blogging contracts, acquiring my own clients. From 2019 in the Czech Republic until now in Mexico, my clientele has grown. The demand for Spanish content also called for a larger team. 

I've since trained select writers and editors in best practices for SEO and brought them onboard. With our current team of 4 based out of San Francisco and CDMX we have found our stride. A smart team means things run smoothly. We work with tech clients with marketing campaigns or web launches that need to outsource content. I handle client management and have stepped away from the writing desk completely. 

What's in store for the future? Not content to remain small, I am in the middle of managing a re-brand and market shift. Fueled by conversations in my NGO networks in Latin America, my hope is to move into impact work and pick up all those RFPs I see floating around. AlisonMac will still exist, I think

A new business, Archer Impact, will launch in partnership with Stacy in 2022. Our focus will be SEO content/copy and impact M&E-related work. Our target clients will be NGOs in Latin America. We want to improve the quality of communication and impact in the global development field, especially in the dynamic of US-funded projects. 

A website is in the works. Our business plan is 25% done. We know our break even point and are doing financial projections for 2 years. We are networking to find partner agencies who have effective services in these areas. There is plenty of research work to do before the launch, but we are both excited about this next move. 

Volunteering

By the time Biden/Harris won the US presidential election in 2020, I was completely burnt out on US politics. I remain a member of the Democrats Abroad Hispanic Caucus but I stepped down from the executive committee. I've helped on one campaign since, an effort to remove VA-issued obstacles for GI benefits to be applied at higher education institutions abroad. 

In the Red Cross, we had a saying when people asked how they could help. "Give your money, your time, or your blood." I couldn't give any more time so I switched to being a regular donor to the ACLU.

Social Media

@LasSaboritas is silent. We reached over 700 Prague-based restaurant and bar reviews and 730+ followers. I stopped contributing when I left Prague in 2020. Ana stopped when she moved to Seattle this year. It was a fun project. We even enjoyed a regular food column in the English-language expat newspaper for awhile. What a cool experience.

Grad School

I graduated! I now have a master's degree in International Economics and Geopolitics from Univerzita Karlova or Charles University in Prague. I finished my thesis during the pandemic and defended it successfully. I passed my state exams in September 2020 (Economics) and February 2021 (Politics). It was a grueling ending and anticlimactic in a thousand ways, but it's over. I am, as the young people say, #OneDegreeHotter. 

The UK faculty informed me they have zero contacts in Latin America. Before committing to the business, I was a bit frustrated with my study decision. I realize now that what I came out with was a fascinating look at geopolitics from a Central/Eastern European perspective. It's unique to study geopolitics while living in one of the smallest countries in a major world region. This part of my education will serve me well. The Czech language I learned "dvakrát tmavé pivo prosím" will not serve me in the future, but was extremely useful at the time.

Now

Now I've been in Mexico for over 1 year. Moving here was the first time since 2013 that I lived in a country where I could speak and understand the language from day one. What a welcome break for my brain. The original goal was to head to Colombia for work, but the pandemic and politics changed things.

I am back in CDMX for the long haul after spending time in Nayarit and Guadalajara. To sum things up I am happy to be back in a bustling, cosmopolitan, multicultural, capital city of the world. 

Those are my life updates. How about you? I'd love to hear somebody else's life update.