Coffee Lab opened in 2008 on the Vila Madalena side of Pinheiros and was the first proper third-wave coffee place in São Paulo. The founder Isabela Raposeiras has trained most of the city's better baristas at one point or another. The shop functions as a coffee lab in the genuine sense — sample roasting, cupping bar, public training space — and the small cafe at the front sells the day's roast as espresso, filter, or by the bag.
The pastries from Carole Crema (the pastry chef sister of the chef Alex Atala) are the other reason to come. Sit, ask the barista what is the day's recommended bean, and watch one of the city's quieter specialty-coffee scenes work. There are now half a dozen branches across São Paulo; the Vila Madalena original is the one to seek out.