Melbourne-Style Coffee House, 37° Degrees Sth, Is Coming to Belle Meade

The stateside popularity in recent years of Australian coffee culture appears to finally be making its way to Nashville, as 37° Degrees Sth, a Melbourne-inspired coffee house and cafe, is set to open in Belle Meade this summer.

Slated for 6000 Highway 100 in the retail center currently home to future neighbors 360 Bistro and Juice Bar, owner/operators Steve and Natasha Gordijn plan to relocate from Melbourne, Australia to Nashville with their toddler son Xavier in tow in May, with June/July pegged as an opening target.

Speaking from Melbourne, Steve Gordijn, a business entrepreneur and corporate chief financial officer in the oil industry, tells Eater that he and his wife “have traveled all over the globe and that we just fell in love with Nashville. It’s a great city with a vibrant culture, friendly people. So we said, let’s roll the dice and make a life change.”

Gordijn says that they have visited Nashville at least a dozen times over the past six or seven years, and that he has been here once a month over the past few months while getting a location for the coffee house locked in.

His wife Natasha, a patisserie cook by trade, will be running the kitchen, with Steve leaving the day-to-day corporate life to help with operations and front of house. The cafe will offer Melbourne-style coffee, baked goods, gourmet sandwiches and salads. Breakfast and lunch will be served Monday through Friday, with brunch on the weekends.

“Melbourne is one of the leading cafe cities in the world, and those cafes offer a different type of environment,” says Gordijn. “There is more European influence in Australian coffee houses, and it’s more about feeling at home, reading the paper, meeting with friends. And we want to share that culture with Nashville.”

And the name 37° Degrees Sth? Gordijn says that it has evolved from Melbourne and Auckland, New Zealand (where Natasha is originally from) both being on the 37th parallel south circle of latitude.

Keep up with what they have planned by following the cafe’s Facebook page, and be sure to check back for more updates.

• 37° Degrees Sth [Facebook]