Café 4 Gatos

Sitting at a cozy little bar in Granada, waiting for my cafe con leche and toast. It’s a super cute place on one of these endless tangled, cobbled streets - I got here and people were standing around waiting for an outdoor table. I started checking out Google Maps for another place, but then decided to look inside. Sure enough, there was a narrow bar with available stools. Now I have a front row seat to the best show in town. Busy bartender slinging coffees with steamed milk. Bubbly waitress popping in and out, grabbing plates of food, returning with empties, all the while humming and singing along to the funky music coming from the bar speakers. A young boy in the kitchen trying to keep up with toast orders. And a woman in the back who appears to be the boss, barking out the occasional command toward the bar. I think I found the best place for a coffee in all of Granada.

It’s crazy how, during a trip, a day or an experience or a mood can be tipped in a certain direction by the smallest of things or by the most innocuous of choices. This morning I walked to the same square where our family enjoyed drinks and tapas yesterday afternoon, thinking one of those places would be serving coffee. They weren’t. Then a Google search ensued and I could have gone a million different directions in pursuit of my coffee. Not to mention that I almost texted Maria and David to see where they had gone for their breakfast. Eventually I set my sites on this place, based on proximity and its strong Google reviews. And I still almost didn’t stay here, after seeing the crowd outside and having in my head the idea of a coffee experience outside on a sidewalk or at a cafe at the edges of a busy plaza. Oh, and I forgot that I almost started brewing myself my own cup of coffee in the apartment to enjoy on our terrace overlooking the city. I’m sure that would have been nice, too. Will all those choices, this morning I have found myself here - at the super characteristic Cafe 4 Gatos. Of course, any number of other choices might have landed me in any number of other equally soul-filling places. But now I’m here. In the right place. Feeling lucky.