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A little morning latte action at Stay Golden.
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Where to Drink Coffee in Nashville

The finest cups of cold brew, frothy lattes, and jolts of espresso — mapped

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A little morning latte action at Stay Golden.
| Stay Golden/Facebook

Nashville’s culinary star has been on the rise in recent years, and the coffee shop movement has shot up right along with it. Today — more than ever before — there’s a slew of shops around town taking great pride in their cup of joe, some going so far as to source their own beans in far-flung locales and roast them here at home.

So, if you’re looking for a little afternoon pick-me-up or a cup of warm, delicious java to perk up a morning coffee date, this curated mix of essential cafes around Nashville has your back with steamy cups of heavenly joe and a few sweet (and savory) snacks to help fuel your day.

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Elegy Coffee

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The cute coffee shop from the owners of the Fox Bar and Cocktail Club features a walk-up window for easy on-the-go coffee pickup. Iced coffee fans rave about the signature Honey Bear cold brew latte kicked up a notch with oat milk, burnt honey, cinnamon, and a drizzle of maple syrup. You can also find most of the same items at its Downtown and Germantown location.

The “honey bunches of cold brew” at Elegy Coffee
Delia Jo Ramsey/Eater Nashville

Retrograde Coffee

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The Dickerson Pike shop in East Nashville’s Cleveland Park neighborhood has a nice patio for rare days that beg to be spent outdoors. A favorite spot among locals for being “a place to pause,” Retrograde serves locally roasted beans, and offers other coffee from around the southeast. Keep an eye out for some of its seasonal offerings like the summery peach and turmeric espresso tonic and fall’s sweet potato latte.

Slow Hand Coffee + Bakeshop

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This East Nashville hang offers high-quality brews and a variety of savory and sweet breakfast and lunch items (think: cherry danishes and roast pork burritos) while leaving the pretentiousness often affiliated with coffee culture at the door. You can also find a second location out in Lebanon.

Ugly Mugs Coffee & Tea

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Open since 2008, this East Nashville coffee and tea purveyor serves breakfast and lunch options daily until 6 p.m. alongside Drew’s Brews East Nasvhille-roasted coffee and some pretty inventive seasonal concoctions (like the Rooting 4 U made with root beer cold brew, vanilla oat milk, and cold foam). Food selections include breakfast burritos, chorizo rosti, granola, and a recently added arroz con horchata, plus baked goods from an array of local vendors.

Rolling Mill Hill’s coffee mecca is serious about its business, taking painstaking efforts to source its beans the right way and offering various classes on the craft of coffee. And if you like an extra little pick-me-up with your morning joe, head over to Pinewood Social and order Crema's cortado with Fernet.

8th & Roast

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The original 8th Avenue haven for the creative class remains busier than ever, but roasting operations have gone west to their new, roomy digs on Charlotte Ave. Both locations brew all the usual caffeinated suspects (espresso, cappuccinos, and lattes) alongside more creative concoctions like a flash-chilled Brazil sweet blue iced coffee topped with peanut butter chocolate cold foams. You’ll also find breakfast and lunch options, including grab-and-go meals for those in a rush. At the airport? There’s an 8th & Roast there now, too.

Headquarters

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It may be a tad small (nine feet wide, to be exact), but the eclectic Charlotte Avenue coffee shop’s brews make it worth a stop. Favorite creative, caffeinated concoctions include the sorghum cinnamon latte and the seasonal Cherry Refresho which combines espresso and Mexican Coca-Cola. The shop also offers baked goods from local bakeries Brightside BakeryDozen BakerySweet 16th and Vegan Vee.

Sump Coffee

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This Saint Louis transplant is located in the OneCity complex and specializes in light-roasted single-origin coffee. Open every day from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., you can find pour-over coffees and lattes at this bright, sunlit shop along with a variety of pastries from Dozen and a few office nomads tapping away at their laptops.

The Horn Coffee

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This is the only coffee shop in town where you can nibble on a variety of East African sambusas (beef, vegetable, and hot chicken to name a while getting a caffeine fix. The Murfreesboro Pike spot was opened in 2015 by a Somali family hoping to bring the pastries and beverages they missed to Nashville’s dining scene. Try the Somali Chai tea to wash down these savory treats.

Dose Coffee

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Dose was the first multi-roaster coffee shop in town, and the owners of this popular West End coffee shop — which opened back in 2009 — also have two other locations in East Nashville and Old Hickory Village. While the East Nashville location is the only one with a bar program (i.e. you can spike your java there), all locations offer a rotating selection of coffees from Counter Culture Coffee all year round along with featured roasts from over two dozen U.S. roasters.

Bongo Java

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This is the grandfather in the local coffee world, having originally opened up on Belmont Avenue in 1993. Its proprietary coffee is roasted here in Nashville and is 100% organic and fair trade. Food plays as big a part as the brew here, serving hearty breakfast options — like breakfast burritos and avocado toast — all day long. The Bongo family has also grown considerably over the years, and now includes Fido, Game Point Cafe, and Grins.

The Loading Dock

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Kitchy and cool, this Wedgewood Houston haunt is a bit tough to find — you’ll have to wind your way to the back of a small complex to find it. But once you’re there, you’ll want to order some of the locally roasted coffee brews or lattes to take out onto the patio with a bagel sandwich or one of its rotating pastry offerings. You can also pick up a few handmade goods from local artists while you’re there.

Great lattes — and real-deal breakfast tacos — are the name of the game at this Nolensville Pike coffee oasis. Former Texans (hence the strong breakfast tacos game), the shop exclusively features Houston’s Greenway Coffee but has recently dabbled in roasting their own local coffee. There’s also a Texas egg scramble and sweets from Dozen Bakery on the menu, plus a stage for special events.

The Frothy Monkey

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A 12 South institution, neighbors, college students, and business types alike have been flocking to this original location of Frothy Monkey since its inception. You can find all of the usual coffee suspects there (lattes, espressos, drip coffee) along with one of its signature concoctions, the Golden Monkey Latte with espresso, steamed turmeric milk, honey, and cinnamon. Frothy has now expanded to eight storefronts (four of which are in Nashville), a roasting facility, and its very own bakery.

Stay Golden

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At this bright and sunny Berry Hill coffee shop/all-day cafe you’ll find a refreshing coffee soda, a signature brandy vanilla latte, and even coffee cocktails like the Coffee Old-Fashioned with local Belle Meade Bourbon. The shop uses beans from its sister company, Good Citizen Coffee Co., and sources its beans from sustainable farms in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Brazil, and Ethiopia.

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Elegy Coffee

The cute coffee shop from the owners of the Fox Bar and Cocktail Club features a walk-up window for easy on-the-go coffee pickup. Iced coffee fans rave about the signature Honey Bear cold brew latte kicked up a notch with oat milk, burnt honey, cinnamon, and a drizzle of maple syrup. You can also find most of the same items at its Downtown and Germantown location.

The “honey bunches of cold brew” at Elegy Coffee
Delia Jo Ramsey/Eater Nashville

Retrograde Coffee

The Dickerson Pike shop in East Nashville’s Cleveland Park neighborhood has a nice patio for rare days that beg to be spent outdoors. A favorite spot among locals for being “a place to pause,” Retrograde serves locally roasted beans, and offers other coffee from around the southeast. Keep an eye out for some of its seasonal offerings like the summery peach and turmeric espresso tonic and fall’s sweet potato latte.

Slow Hand Coffee + Bakeshop

This East Nashville hang offers high-quality brews and a variety of savory and sweet breakfast and lunch items (think: cherry danishes and roast pork burritos) while leaving the pretentiousness often affiliated with coffee culture at the door. You can also find a second location out in Lebanon.

Ugly Mugs Coffee & Tea

Open since 2008, this East Nashville coffee and tea purveyor serves breakfast and lunch options daily until 6 p.m. alongside Drew’s Brews East Nasvhille-roasted coffee and some pretty inventive seasonal concoctions (like the Rooting 4 U made with root beer cold brew, vanilla oat milk, and cold foam). Food selections include breakfast burritos, chorizo rosti, granola, and a recently added arroz con horchata, plus baked goods from an array of local vendors.

Crema

Rolling Mill Hill’s coffee mecca is serious about its business, taking painstaking efforts to source its beans the right way and offering various classes on the craft of coffee. And if you like an extra little pick-me-up with your morning joe, head over to Pinewood Social and order Crema's cortado with Fernet.

8th & Roast

The original 8th Avenue haven for the creative class remains busier than ever, but roasting operations have gone west to their new, roomy digs on Charlotte Ave. Both locations brew all the usual caffeinated suspects (espresso, cappuccinos, and lattes) alongside more creative concoctions like a flash-chilled Brazil sweet blue iced coffee topped with peanut butter chocolate cold foams. You’ll also find breakfast and lunch options, including grab-and-go meals for those in a rush. At the airport? There’s an 8th & Roast there now, too.

Headquarters

It may be a tad small (nine feet wide, to be exact), but the eclectic Charlotte Avenue coffee shop’s brews make it worth a stop. Favorite creative, caffeinated concoctions include the sorghum cinnamon latte and the seasonal Cherry Refresho which combines espresso and Mexican Coca-Cola. The shop also offers baked goods from local bakeries Brightside BakeryDozen BakerySweet 16th and Vegan Vee.

Sump Coffee

This Saint Louis transplant is located in the OneCity complex and specializes in light-roasted single-origin coffee. Open every day from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., you can find pour-over coffees and lattes at this bright, sunlit shop along with a variety of pastries from Dozen and a few office nomads tapping away at their laptops.

The Horn Coffee

This is the only coffee shop in town where you can nibble on a variety of East African sambusas (beef, vegetable, and hot chicken to name a while getting a caffeine fix. The Murfreesboro Pike spot was opened in 2015 by a Somali family hoping to bring the pastries and beverages they missed to Nashville’s dining scene. Try the Somali Chai tea to wash down these savory treats.

Dose Coffee

Dose was the first multi-roaster coffee shop in town, and the owners of this popular West End coffee shop — which opened back in 2009 — also have two other locations in East Nashville and Old Hickory Village. While the East Nashville location is the only one with a bar program (i.e. you can spike your java there), all locations offer a rotating selection of coffees from Counter Culture Coffee all year round along with featured roasts from over two dozen U.S. roasters.

Bongo Java

This is the grandfather in the local coffee world, having originally opened up on Belmont Avenue in 1993. Its proprietary coffee is roasted here in Nashville and is 100% organic and fair trade. Food plays as big a part as the brew here, serving hearty breakfast options — like breakfast burritos and avocado toast — all day long. The Bongo family has also grown considerably over the years, and now includes Fido, Game Point Cafe, and Grins.

The Loading Dock

Kitchy and cool, this Wedgewood Houston haunt is a bit tough to find — you’ll have to wind your way to the back of a small complex to find it. But once you’re there, you’ll want to order some of the locally roasted coffee brews or lattes to take out onto the patio with a bagel sandwich or one of its rotating pastry offerings. You can also pick up a few handmade goods from local artists while you’re there.

Tempo

Great lattes — and real-deal breakfast tacos — are the name of the game at this Nolensville Pike coffee oasis. Former Texans (hence the strong breakfast tacos game), the shop exclusively features Houston’s Greenway Coffee but has recently dabbled in roasting their own local coffee. There’s also a Texas egg scramble and sweets from Dozen Bakery on the menu, plus a stage for special events.

The Frothy Monkey

A 12 South institution, neighbors, college students, and business types alike have been flocking to this original location of Frothy Monkey since its inception. You can find all of the usual coffee suspects there (lattes, espressos, drip coffee) along with one of its signature concoctions, the Golden Monkey Latte with espresso, steamed turmeric milk, honey, and cinnamon. Frothy has now expanded to eight storefronts (four of which are in Nashville), a roasting facility, and its very own bakery.

Stay Golden

At this bright and sunny Berry Hill coffee shop/all-day cafe you’ll find a refreshing coffee soda, a signature brandy vanilla latte, and even coffee cocktails like the Coffee Old-Fashioned with local Belle Meade Bourbon. The shop uses beans from its sister company, Good Citizen Coffee Co., and sources its beans from sustainable farms in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Brazil, and Ethiopia.

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