Nashville, Tennessee

The best coffee in Nashville

Ten Nashville cafés and roasters across East Nashville and Germantown.

10 entries · verified August 2026

Nashville's coffee splits cleanly by neighbourhood, which makes it easy to plan around. East Nashville is the deepest concentration and the most casual, running from Barista Parlor's auto-shop room down to Ugly Mugs and Retrograde, the two run by the same team. Germantown is denser and more walkable, and better if you only have a morning: Steadfast, Elegy and Neighborlily all sit within a few blocks of each other.

Most of the city's serious roasting happens away from the tourist corridor, so a guide organised around Broadway would miss almost all of it. Crema and Osa both roast on-site and supply other cafés around town, which is a reasonable signal of who the other shops actually trust.

Two names worth knowing before you go: Momento and Dose both run their own distinct drink programs rather than a generic espresso menu, so if you only have time for one stop outside East Nashville or Germantown, either is a better use of it than a chain.

  1. Barista Parlor

    East Nashville

    Still part of every East Nashville coffee conversation, and the room that set the visual template a lot of the city followed: built out of an old auto shop, vinyl on the stereo, shots pulled on a Slayer espresso machine. Reviewers praise the biscuits as much as the coffee. The one recurring complaint is a slow line at peak hours.

    519B Gallatin Ave, Nashville, TN 37206 · Website

  2. Ugly Mugs

    East Nashville

    The unpretentious East Nashville answer, open since 2008 and run in partnership with sister shop Retrograde. A neighbourhood café that people actually sit in for hours; regulars mention there's rarely a free table, and the Hoodie Latte gets called out specifically.

    Order: the Hoodie Latte

    1886 Eastland Ave, Nashville, TN 37206 · Website

  3. Dose Coffee & Tea

    East Nashville

    House-made syrups and a draft iced coffee programme that goes further than most, built around the Barcelona: draft iced coffee topped with soft salted whipped cream, popular enough to have its own T-shirt. A few reviews note the ice-to-coffee ratio can run high for the price.

    Order: The Barcelona — draft iced coffee with soft salted whipped cream

    1400 McGavock Pike, Nashville, TN 37216 · Website

  4. Momento Specialty Coffee

    East Nashville

    Café and roaster in one, and one of the highest-rated coffee rooms in the city on public reviews. House-roasted; reviewers specifically praise correctly sized cortados, which is not a given, plus the Cuban latte and Flower Child latte.

    347 Douglas Ave, Nashville, TN 37207 · Website

  5. Retrograde Coffee

    East Nashville

    A multi-roaster approach: Onyx Coffee Lab as the house pour plus deliberately off-the-beaten-path guest roasters. Locations in East Nashville, Germantown and West End, run by the same team behind Ugly Mugs.

    1305 Dickerson Pike, Nashville, TN 37207 · Website

  6. Steadfast Coffee

    Germantown

    One of the reliable Germantown targets, mixing traditional filter brews with more experimental espresso drinks like a flash-chilled coffee soda. Reviewers mention the poached eggs almost as often as the coffee; a few note the pace slows when the shop is short-staffed.

    603 Taylor St, Nashville, TN 37208 · Website

  7. Elegy Coffee

    Germantown

    The newer end of the Germantown cluster. The Honey Bear gets singled out often enough in reviews to be worth ordering on its own merits, though a stray review or two mentions a drink served under-heated.

    Order: the Honey Bear

    1390 Adams St Suite 13, Nashville, TN 37208 · Website

  8. Neighborlily

    Germantown

    A flower, coffee and tea shop, which sounds like a gimmick and is not. Opened January 2024 from the team behind Poppy & Monroe; decaf comes from 8th and Roast, regular espresso from Flora and Fauna. Reviewers praise the room's finish as much as the drinks.

    Order: the Oaxacan mocha or the dulce de leche latte

    606 Monroe St, Nashville, TN 37208 · Website

  9. Crema Coffee Roasters

    One of the city's established roasters, and the name you will see bagged in other people's cafés. Runs an in-house coffee education program alongside on-site roasting; the almond-coconut milk blend and the kouign-amann both draw repeat mentions, and lines build on weekends.

    15 Hermitage Ave, Nashville, TN 37210 · Website

  10. Osa Coffee Roasters

    A micro-roaster running two retail locations, on Music Row and in East Nashville, roasting light-to-medium single origins on-site. The oat milk mocha cappuccino gets described by more than one reviewer as the best they've had.

    1579 Edgehill Ave, Nashville, TN 37212 · Website