September 2025
Motivos is located in San Salvador’s Zona Rosa district, a favorite amongst locals and visitors. Its streets are lined with cafés, bars, restaurants, and boutiques bustling with life both day and night. The area is peppered with murals and street art and also houses two of El Salvador’s most reputable museums.
However, like in many cities around the globe, things looked very different during the pandemic. Yet still, it was right then that Rodrigo Moreno, founder of Motivos, decided to pursue his passion. “Motivos is a dream come true that combines the flavors of coffee with gifts,” he tells us, “it was born during the pandemic and created to send messages of love through food.”
“The goal of Motivos is to make every day count.”
As San Salvador’s first coffee and flower shop, Motivos found a niche. Granted, times changed quickly as the capital continued its transformation under President Bukele’s leadership, and when he saw the café landscape expand and competition grow, Rodrigo knew his business had to adapt.
“We started accepting bitcoin when the country opened up to the world with the Bitcoin Law,” Rodrigo says, “we did it to support the government and the country’s image but then realized it was also a tool to differentiate ourselves from the competition and reach a community that shares our values.”
But things didn’t stop there. As the city flourished around him, Rodrigo, forever the entrepreneur, chose to adapt once more: “With the change in the image of our nation and the arrival of more international visitors, we decided to open for brunch and create the first coffee-and-flower shop that offers brunch all day, every day.”
Unique food offerings are not the only reason Rodrigo believes Motivos has survived and thrived in a time that brought many businesses to their knees. “Choosing quality ingredients and making totally uncommon products such as our chocolate flowers or our chocolate coffees sets us apart from other coffee shops. Our most popular gifts are undoubtedly our chocolate-covered strawberries, and one of the things we like most is seeing fathers come in to buy flowers for their daughters, simply as a way to make every day count.”
Sitting proudly among the hustle and bustle of Motivos, Rodrigo smiles as he shares his vision: “Our dream continues to grow; we want to become El Salvador’s premier brunch spot. Given that El Salvador is experiencing a different reality and the country is now opening up to the world, I invite other entrepreneurs to join this movement.”
