Café Puro Arte is a popular gathering place that functions as both a café and a cultural venue — exhibitions of photography and painting rotate on the walls, and occasional live music fills the interior courtyard. It serves good Nicaraguan coffee and a range of drinks, and the atmosphere is more relaxed than the party-oriented hostels.
This is the kind of place where you can sit for two hours over a coffee, flip through a book, and watch León's creative community do the same. The building itself is a restored colonial house with high ceilings and an inner garden. It attracts a mix of locals, students, and travellers who have been around long enough to find their way off the main hostel circuit.