Churros at dawn, nieves at dusk: a sweet day in Mexico City

Mexico City keeps a sweet tooth and a serious coffee habit: churros fried since 1935, trays of pan dulce chosen with tongs, beans roasted every morning and nieves scooped since 1946. A day on the city’s sweet side, with the places in our guide.

Mexico City starts the day with something sweet. Long before the offices open, the churrerías are frying, the bakeries are stacking their shelves with conchas and the coffee bars of Roma and Condesa are pulling their first espressos. Plan a day around them and you will see the city at its most generous, from the old streets of the Centro to the leafy squares of the west.

Churros in the Centro

Begin where the city has begun its mornings for generations. El Moro has fried churros since 1935, in its own words, and its first churrería is still at Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas 42, in the Centro Histórico. Order them hot, dusted in sugar; the website lists its other branches across the city.

A few streets away, Pastelería Ideal is one of the Centro’s old bakeries. The ritual is the same as it has always been: take a tray and a pair of tongs, and choose from the shelves. Then call at the Dulcería de Celaya, the Centro’s traditional sweet shop, for something to carry home.

Pan dulce, old and new

A newer generation of bakers has given pan dulce a second life. Panadería Rosetta is the bakery of Elena Reygadas, whose restaurant Rosetta holds One MICHELIN Star; its website lists its bakeries, and a morning there makes a gentle start before the galleries.

In Polanco, Da Silva is an artisan bakery led by the chef Eduardo Da Silva, at Oscar Wilde 8. Beyond the bread and pastries, you can build your own box of macarons, flavour by flavour, which makes a neat gift for the flight home.

Take a tray and a pair of tongs, and choose from the shelves.

Mexican coffee

Mexico grows its own coffee, and the city’s roasters treat it with pride. Buna roasts Mexican speciality coffee, describing it as coffee that conserves ecosystems. Almanegra roasts every day, in its own words, and pours it at Zacatecas 180, in Roma, and on Avenida Universidad, in Narvarte, both open daily from 7.30am.

Eno’s Roma café, on the corner of Chihuahua and Jalapa, opens at 7am on weekdays, and another sits beside the Museo Jumex, handy before the art. In Condesa, Chiquitito Café keeps things simple at Alfonso Reyes 232-E: coffee done well, friendly service and somewhere easy to sit.

Nieves after the park

End the day with an ice. Nevería Roxy has made helados and nieves, the water ices of Mexico, since 1946; its story began in the portico of a cinema. The Condesa parlour on Avenida Fernando Montes de Oca opens until 9pm on weekdays and 9.30pm at weekends, and there is a counter in the Bosque de Chapultepec, open Tuesday to Sunday, for a sweet stop after the museums.

Our advice: have your churros at El Moro early, before the queues; spend the late morning on coffee and pan dulce in Roma and Condesa, and save your nieves for the late afternoon, after a walk in Parque México or Chapultepec.