A coffee and cake crawl through Bordeaux

Six independent Bordeaux stops from the Place Pey Berland through Saint-Pierre and the Chartrons, each open about the roaster and the machine behind the bar.

This is a walkable coffee and cake crawl through Bordeaux, running from the Place Pey Berland south into Saint-Pierre, then north through the Chartrons antiques district. Six independent stops, with the roaster and the machine noted at each one where it is publicly known.

1. Black List Café

Start at 27 Place Pey Berland, directly in front of the Gothic cathedral, where Laurent Pierre opened the first specialty coffee bar in Bordeaux in 2014. Pierre came from a decade as a wine cellar master and brought the same sourcing instinct to coffee: the filter and pour-over menu changes weekly and draws from Oven Heaven in Bègles and 3fe Coffee in Dublin. It is a good introduction to a city that took specialty coffee seriously from the start.

2. L'Alchimiste

Walk ten minutes north-east to 12 Rue de la Vieille Tour in the Gambetta quarter, where Gaël Audibert opened Bordeaux's first specialty roastery in 2014. L'Alchimiste has grown to three Bordeaux addresses since, with the roastery at the Darwin eco-site on the Quai des Queyries; the Vieille Tour original pulls espresso on a La Marzocco Linea PB with a Mythos One grinder and rotates single origins from Colombia, Brazil, Guatemala and Ethiopia.

3. Cafecito

Head south-east to 7 Rue du Parlement Saint-Pierre, a lively Saint-Pierre square where Cafecito bakes organic cakes in house and typically sells out by early afternoon. The coffee is drip and espresso from rotating French and Italian roasters. It is the most cake-forward stop on the crawl and worth timing for before the afternoon sell-out.

4. Books & Coffee

Walk two minutes to 26 Rue Saint-James in Saint-Pierre, where Benjamin Audas founded this combined coffee shop and bookshop in 2013. Books & Coffee installed its own roaster in 2017 and has been house-roasting since; the retail bags of fresh-roasted beans are sold over the same counter as the in-house baked pastries. The shop was a finalist for best coffee shop in France at the Paris Coffee Show in 2025.

5. Café Piha

Continue south two minutes to 69 Rue des Ayres, where Pierre Guérin and Carole Laffargue opened Café Piha in 2017 after Guérin trained as a barista in Auckland. Piha roasts its own beans in small batches and is the exclusive French distributor of Probat roasters; the La Marzocco Leva pulls the house roast alongside a pastry counter that includes gluten-free cake options. The shop won multiple Global Coffee Awards medals in 2025.

6. La Pelle Café

Finish twenty minutes north by foot or a few stops on the tram at 29 Rue Notre-Dame in the Chartrons antiques district, where Carlos Pereira opened La Pelle in January 2016. Pereira grew up near coffee farms in Brazil and trained in Turin; the roaster is visible from the bar and the menu extends to espresso, V60, AeroPress and Chemex alongside a brunch menu with an Asian influence. A quiet room at the end of a walk through the older quarters of the city.

All six are independent and the route runs broadly north from the Cathedral through Saint-Pierre to the Chartrons. The first four stops are within a ten-minute walk of each other; the tram, line C or D along the quais, covers the final leg to La Pelle quickly if you prefer.

Common questions

Which was the first specialty coffee place in Bordeaux?

Black List Café on Place Pey Berland, opened in 2014 by Laurent Pierre, is widely cited as the first specialty coffee bar in the city. L'Alchimiste, also founded in 2014, was the first specialty roastery.

Which Bordeaux cafes roast their own coffee?

Four stops on this crawl roast in house: L'Alchimiste roasts at its Darwin eco-site on the Quai des Queyries; Books & Coffee has roasted at its Saint-James address since 2017; Café Piha roasts small batches at the Rue des Ayres cafe; and La Pelle in the Chartrons has had a roaster visible from the bar since 2016.

Is the Bordeaux coffee crawl walkable?

Mostly. The first four stops, from Place Pey Berland through Gambetta and Saint-Pierre, are within a comfortable fifteen-minute walk. The Chartrons is a further twenty minutes on foot along the quais or a few stops on tram line C or D.

Where is the best stop for cake specifically in Bordeaux?

Cafecito in Saint-Pierre bakes organic cakes in house and sells out by early afternoon, so it is worth arriving before midday. Café Piha on Rue des Ayres bakes pastries and offers gluten-free options alongside its award-winning house-roasted coffee.