Nashville's Best Specialty Coffee Shops

Nashville's specialty coffee scene grew up in step with the rest of the city's boom over the last two decades, and it didn't just import the standard third-wave template. The strongest shops here tend to be roaster-backed, tied tightly to one neighborhood rather than chasing a downtown flagship, and unusually willing to mess with technique instead of running the same playbook as everywhere else.

The five stops below run from Wedgewood-Houston to The Nations, each earning its spot for a specific reason rather than general popularity.

The Foundational Roaster: Crema Coffee Roasters, Wedgewood-Houston

Rachel and Ben Lehman founded Crema in 2007 and began roasting their own coffee in 2011; the shop has since grown to three Nashville-area locations plus a wholesale operation that supplies much of the city. Direct partnerships with producers sit at the center of how Crema operates, not as a line on the bag but as the actual sourcing relationship behind it.

Signature drink: single-origin espresso from Crema's direct-trade partnerships. What to order: ask which origin the roasting team is currently most excited about; the sourcing story is the real product here.

The Technique Innovator: Steadfast Coffee, Germantown

Steadfast opened in Germantown in 2015 and built its reputation on flash-chilling: coffee brewed hot to precise extraction specs, then run through a heat exchanger that drops its temperature instantly, which stalls oxidation and keeps the brightness a standard cold-brew steep tends to lose. That process anchors the Matchless Coffee Soda, a carbonated, flash-chilled coffee finished with demerara sugar and citric acid, which won Nashville Scene's "Best Coffee Soda" the year it launched and later became its own standalone product.

Signature drink: the Matchless Coffee Soda. What to order: that soda specifically; it's not a drink you'll find replicated with the same process anywhere else in the city.

The All-Day Institution: Frothy Monkey, Belmont-Hillsboro

Frothy Monkey's original 12South bungalow, technically on the edge of Belmont-Hillsboro, opened in 2004 and still functions as a genuine hybrid of coffee bar, restaurant and workspace, with an upstairs room built specifically for people planning to stay. Now spread across six locations from East Nashville to Chattanooga, it's the shop locals describe as an institution rather than a trend, and the pace still reflects that.

Signature drink: house drip, roasted in-house. What to order: the drip if you're settling in for a full working session; the all-day food menu means you can reasonably run from breakfast through lunch at the same table.

The Growing Neighborhood Spot: Retrograde Coffee, Dickerson Pike

Retrograde opened on historic Dickerson Pike in 2018, outside Nashville's denser coffee corridors, aiming from the start to be a neighborhood gathering place rather than a destination cafe. What began as a multi-roaster shop pouring outside beans has since grown its own roasting operation through sister company Lightspeed Coffee, which now supports other independent Nashville coffee businesses too.

Signature drink: house pour-over, now roasted in-house. What to order: ask what's currently in rotation; the shop's identity is still tied to that original multi-roaster curiosity even with its own roasts on the menu.

The Bean to Take Home: Honest Coffee Roasters, The Nations

Honest was established in 2014, roasting both at its Nashville location and its flagship at the Factory in Franklin, and its Nations-neighborhood cafe sits inside L&L Market at 3820 Charlotte Avenue, surrounded by restaurants and small shops. The space itself, open layout, mid-century design, plenty of seating, was built around locally roasted coffee first and a simple breakfast-and-lunch menu second.

Signature drink: house drip, roasted through Honest's Factory in Franklin program. What to order: a bag of the current single-origin filter roast; the roasting program is the actual core of the brand.

Getting Around

Crema Coffee Roasters in Wedgewood-Houston and Frothy Monkey's 12South original sit a short trip apart and pair well into one outing. Steadfast, in Germantown, is a separate stop north of downtown. Retrograde on Dickerson Pike and Honest Coffee Roasters in The Nations sit in different directions again and are each worth their own dedicated visit.

For the manual brewing gear to bring these cups home with you, see our full brewing collection, or browse every city we cover in the city guides hub.