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Café Don Ruiz and Specialty Coffee in Old San Juan

Café Don Ruiz is a coffee shop with its own small roastery and a coffee museum in the Cuartel de Ballajá, the former Spanish barracks facing Castillo San Felipe del Morro in Old San Juan. It sells coffee grown by the Ruiz family, whose farms are in the mountains of Yauco and, according to the business, Maricao. Listings give different opening hours, so each visitor detail below carries its source and date; confirm before you go.

Visiting

  • Address: Cuartel de Ballajá, Calle Norzagaray, Old San Juan, PR 00901; Puerto Rico Plus places it at the corner of Calle Beneficencia, and a 2023 TripAdvisor copy at the corner of Calle Morovis.
  • Telephone: 787-723-1462, on the business's own contact page and in the TripAdvisor and Puerto Rico Plus listings.
  • E-mail: cafedonruiz@gmail.com, as given by Puerto Rico Plus.
  • Hours: the business publishes its hours only as images on its website; the undated Puerto Rico Plus listing gives Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Sunday 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., while a 2018 travel tip and the 2023 TripAdvisor copy give longer hours.
  • Prices: the 2023 TripAdvisor copy gave a price range of $5 to $10.
  • Second shop: Café Don Ruiz also has a shop in the Metro Plaza Mall in Caguas, reported by Primera Hora in March 2024 and Plátea PR in February 2025.
  • Caguas hours: in March 2024 Primera Hora gave them as Monday and Tuesday 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Wednesday to Saturday 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Sunday 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

The Cuartel de Ballajá

A large crowd on an open field in front of large colonial buildings, with United States flags flying, on a postcard printed "Morro Play ground."

"Morro Play ground": a photographic postcard by Attilio Moscioni, about 1920, showing a crowd on the Morro fields with the buildings of the Ballajá quarter behind. Photo: Attilio Moscioni / Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

The Cuartel de Ballajá was built between 1854 and 1864 by the Spanish Corps of Military Engineers as infantry barracks, housing about 2,000 soldiers and officers with their families, according to the National Park Service's tour of Old San Juan. The Park Service's nomination of the Old San Juan Historic District describes it as a monumental building organised around a huge courtyard, and notes that urban legends claim it is the largest of its type in America. After 1939 it became an annex of the US Army's Rodríguez Army Hospital. Discover Puerto Rico says the Puerto Rican government bought the building in 1976, while a 1994 Puerto Rico law describes the government as its custodian under an agreement with the federal government. That law, Ley 6 of 8 January 1994, set the building's use as a centre for tourism, culture and education. Today it houses the Museo de las Américas, a nonprofit founded in 1992, along with the Puerto Rico Academy of the Spanish Language, the State Historic Preservation Office, a dance school and a music school. The museum keeps its own hours: Tuesday to Friday 9 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The neighbouring building, built as a charity asylum, houses the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture.

The Ruiz Family and Its Farms

The shop's owner is Abimael Ruiz Feliciano, who told Primera Hora in March 2024 that the business is named in honour of his father, Don Eugenio Ruiz Vargas. Plátea PR, in February 2025, described Eugenio Ruiz as the family's third generation. Abimael Ruiz told Primera Hora that the family has grown coffee in Yauco for four generations, since his great-grandfather, and that he works the farm together with his brother, Eugenio Ruiz. He described the family's work as planting, growing, sun-drying, processing and roasting the coffee themselves. The business's own website traces the family's coffee growing in Yauco to the late 1800s. It lists its farms as Yauco and Maricao, and its varieties as Typica, Obata, Limaní and Pacamara. Lonely Planet reported in 2022 that the farm is still family-run, that the coffee is picked by hand by local pickers, and that the surrounding mountain slopes lie at about 3,000 feet. In February 2025 Plátea PR reported that Café Don Ruiz had made a beer with coffee cherries together with Ocean Lab, its second venture into brewing.

The Library of Congress film below follows Puerto Rico's coffee farmers.

Watch: El Motor: Coffee and the Heart of Puerto Rico — Library of Congress

It was made by Russell Oliver, who received a 2022 Community Collections Grant from the American Folklife Center.

The Shop, the Roastery and the Museum

The business says it has two roasting facilities: the main one at the hacienda, and a small one inside the shop, where coffee is roasted during opening hours so customers can watch. Lonely Planet likewise reported in 2022 that most of the coffee is roasted in Yauco and small batches at the shop, while a Spanish-language Discover Puerto Rico guide says the coffee is roasted, ground and packed at the Ballajá shop. The business describes its coffee museum as a collection of all the equipment used at the hacienda from its beginnings to the present, built as small-scale models. Lonely Planet described it as a small, well-curated collection of antique coffee-making accessories and roasting equipment. According to the business, the shop prepares everything from espresso to brewed coffee, always with the family's single-origin coffee from Yauco. Lonely Planet reported an all-day brunch menu with paninis, pastries and the mallorca, and National Geographic listed rum, smoothies and cigars among what visitors can try. Discover Puerto Rico suggests buying a bag of freshly roasted coffee there as a souvenir made in Puerto Rico.

Coffee from Family Farms in San Juan

Café Don Ruiz is one of several San Juan cafés that serve coffee from a family's own farm. Cuatro Sombras, on Calle Recinto Sur in Old San Juan, opened in 2011 and was the old city's first micro-roastery, according to Lonely Planet. Discover Puerto Rico reports that it roasts weekly on a micro-roaster and serves 100 per cent arabica coffee from Yauco, and Lonely Planet that its coffee comes from Hacienda Santa Clara. Lonely Planet and Suitcase magazine trace the owner's family's coffee growing to Domingo Mariani, who they say settled in the mountains of Yauco in 1846, while a site on Puerto Rican haciendas says Santa Clara was established around 1820 and acquired by Mariani around 1860. Its history is told in Cuatro Sombras and Hacienda Santa Clara: San Juan's Specialty Coffee Pioneer. Hacienda San Pedro, whose farm is in Jayuya, serves its coffee at four San Juan locations outside the old city, on Avenida José de Diego and Avenida Domenech and in Hato Rey and Condado, according to Plátea PR in August 2025. Its own article is Hacienda San Pedro: The Atienza Family Coffee Legacy in Jayuya. Yauco, home of the Ruiz family's farm and of Hacienda Santa Clara, is described in Yauco: Puerto Rico's Crown Coffee Region.

Key Facts

  • Where: Cuartel de Ballajá, Calle Norzagaray, Old San Juan, PR 00901.
  • Telephone: 787-723-1462.
  • Owner: Abimael Ruiz Feliciano; the shop is named for his father, Don Eugenio Ruiz Vargas.
  • Farms: Yauco and, according to the business, Maricao, on slopes at about 3,000 feet.
  • Varieties named by the business: Typica, Obata, Limaní and Pacamara.
  • On site: a coffee bar, a small roastery and a coffee museum.
  • Second shop: Metro Plaza Mall, Caguas.
  • The building: Spanish infantry barracks built from 1854 to 1864, now home to the Museo de las Américas.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Café Don Ruiz still open? Yes. The business listed its Old San Juan shop on its website in October 2026, and Discover Puerto Rico included it in a guide last updated September 2025. Listings give different hours, so call 787-723-1462 before you go.

Who runs it? Abimael Ruiz Feliciano, who works the family farm together with his brother, Eugenio Ruiz.

Where does the coffee come from? From the family's farms in Yauco and, according to the business, Maricao.

Is the coffee roasted in the shop? The business says its main roastery is at the hacienda and that small batches are roasted in the shop during opening hours. A Discover Puerto Rico guide says the coffee is roasted at the shop.

Is there a museum? Yes. The business describes a collection of the hacienda's equipment from its beginnings to the present, built as small-scale models.

Sources

Claims this encyclopedia could not source

  • The date the Old San Juan shop opened. Listings elsewhere give February 2013; no source for it was located.
  • An establishment date of 1962 for the company. Not located.
  • That the Cuartel de Ballajá is the largest building of its kind in the Americas. The National Park Service describes the claim as an urban legend.
  • The size of the Ruiz family's farms. No independent record located.
  • Whether beer is sold at the Old San Juan shop. Not stated in the listings located.
  • Tours or tastings at the shop. None located.
  • Cupping scores or awards for Café Don Ruiz coffee. None located.
  • That Yauco Selecto has been exported since about 1990. Not located.

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This article is part of The Coffee Encyclopedia, sponsored by PuertoRicoCoffeeShop.com — the trusted source for authentic Puerto Rican coffee.

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