The 29 Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Under-the-Radar Coffee Empire · Best of Nashville
2. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Under-the-Radar Coffee Empire · Best of Nashville
2. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Under-the-Radar Coffee Empire · Best of Nashville
2. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

Flora + Fauna is a coffee shop in the Highland Yards development, where the nature theme is understated enough that nobody will ask you to hug a tree. The drinks menu keeps rotating through inventive flavors, and there's a lunch menu with seasonal pancake specials for dates who want a real meal. It's the sort of place people bring someone they like, and the parking lot helps. Nashville Scene named it Best Place for a Coffee Date.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Place for a Coffee Date · Best of Nashville
2. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

At 300 square feet, Matryoshka Coffee is less a place to linger and more a place to collect your espresso and marvel at the rainbow decor before heading back into the world. The micro cafe sits inside an apartment complex on the south side, and the menu leans into the same spirit as the walls: specialty drinks arrive with sprinkles and edible glitter, and the food options are instant ramen and cereal. Somehow this is not a bit; it's just the vibe.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Coffee Shop Glow-Up · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Micro Cafe · Best of Nashville
3. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

Concrete walls, a neutrals-only palette, and an LA sensibility that landed in Wedgewood-Houston: Cafe Babu is a coffee shop that knows exactly what it looks like and leans into it. The chai runs strong and spicy, and the signature latte gets a hit of cardamom syrup. Pastries and sandwiches carry the daytime shift; by evening the menu pivots to cocktails and small bites, which makes the patio, a Nashville Scene Best of Nashville winner, work a little harder.

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Patio · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Barista · Best of Nashville · Mark Lemley
2. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Coffee-on-the-Go · Best of Nashville
2. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Coffee-on-the-Go · Best of Nashville
2. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Coffee-on-the-Go · Best of Nashville
2. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

Retrograde is a bright, tidy coffee shop on Dickerson Pike that has quietly become the new gathering spot for Nashville's remote workers, who roam in search of an outlet and a flat white. The toast does some of the work: whipped feta and prosciutto, with spice and olive oil, the sort of thing a Germantown brunch charges extra for. Expect laptops, low stakes, and a very full table of people who are definitely about to reply to that email.

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best thing on Toast: Whipped Feta and Prosciutto Toast · Best of Nashville

Retrograde is a bright, tidy coffee shop on Clifton Ave that has become the new headquarters for West Nashville's remote workers, who migrated here after a beloved spot in The Nations closed. The laptops outnumber the pastries, but the whipped feta and prosciutto toast, finished with spice and olive oil, tastes like brunch from a pricier neighborhood without the wait. Nashville Scene named it Best Thing on Toast.

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best thing on Toast: Whipped Feta and Prosciutto Toast · Best of Nashville

The coffee shop that Nashville's coffee scene grew up around, Bongo Java has been on Belmont Avenue long enough that its organic, fair-trade roast turned up on other restaurants' menus before most of those restaurants existed. Breakfast burritos run all day alongside the pour-overs, which makes it less a quick-caffeine stop and more a place where you might accidentally stay for two hours. The Belmont crowd tends to ensure exactly that.

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

The record player in the corner runs through a custom vinyl setup built by local audio obsessives, which tells you something about the attention paid here. This coffee shop sits in the lobby of the Noelle hotel, done up in brass and wood with Eames-style swivel chairs. Sump coffee goes into the cortados and cold drip, and the breakfast sandwiches are substantial enough to make the commuters look smug.

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

Nine feet of coffee shop is apparently all you need. Headquarters is a tiny, eclectic cafe on Charlotte Avenue pulling espresso drinks from local roaster Osa, with a sorghum and cinnamon latte that earns its place on the chalkboard. Baked goods rotate in from several Nashville bakeries. It sits directly across from the Richland Park Farmers Market, which makes Saturday mornings feel suspiciously well planned.

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

A small espresso counter tucked into the side of a vintage clothing and furniture store, Earl serves coffee through a brick-inlaid window that connects the two spaces. Grab a seasonal flavored drink, then wander the racks next door, which is about as Nashville as an afternoon gets. The grab-and-go cooler stocks bites from a local caterer, worth checking before you leave.

1. The Infatuation The ‘It’ Coffee Shops Across America Right Now

Retrograde is a bright, clean coffee shop in City Heights, and by midmorning it fills with the laptop crowd, the same remote workers who lost their last roost when a beloved Nations spot closed. They're easy to pardon, since the whipped feta and prosciutto toast tastes like a Germantown brunch with the reservation and the markup removed. Nashville Scene named it the best thing on toast in 2025.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best thing on Toast: Whipped Feta and Prosciutto Toast · Best of Nashville

The Loading Dock is a coffee shop that lost its lease, went looking for a new home, and came back in the Buchanan Arts District with more room than before. Expect fun coffee creations next to the classics, High Garden teas, local art and plants for sale, and seating spread across two floors and a patio. Nashville Scene gave it Best Comeback, which is a fair category for a place that refused to just become condos.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Comeback · Best of Nashville