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Crema Coffee Roasters
Crema Coffee Roasters was founded in January 2008 by Rachel and Ben Lehman, who are widely credited as pioneers of Nashville's third-wave coffee movement — the shift toward treating coffee sourcing, roasting, and brewing with the same seriousness given to wine or craft beer. Crema's in-house roasting program launched in 2011, and the company is generally recognized as Nashville's original specialty coffee roaster, predating most of the city's now-crowded independent coffee scene. The flagship downtown location on Hermitage Avenue is affectionately called the "mothership" by Crema's own staff, and it houses more than just a café counter — a dedicated Coffee Education and Events Lab hosts public classes on brewing and sourcing, treating customers as students of the craft rather than just people picking up a to-go cup. Crema describes itself as relationally sourcing coffee from farmers the company knows and trusts directly, and it operates as a zero-waste roaster with carbon-neutral ambitions — a sourcing and operations philosophy that's stayed consistent as the business has grown to three Nashville locations plus a fourth in Brentwood, along with an e-commerce arm shipping beans well beyond Middle Tennessee. That growth hasn't diluted the original Hermitage Avenue café's role as the actual center of the business — it's still where the roasting, the education programming, and the company's identity are most concentrated, even as Crema's beans have made their way onto menus at cafés and restaurants across the region. National recognition has followed, with Crema named among the "100 Best Coffee Shops in America" by outside coffee publications. For a Nashville coffee list, Crema is the essential "this is where Nashville third-wave coffee actually started" entry — a 2008 downtown roaster whose direct-sourcing, education-forward approach helped define the city's specialty coffee scene before most of its competitors existed.
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Frothy Monkey (12 South)
Frothy Monkey opened its original location in a small bungalow on 12th Avenue South in 2004, at a time when the 12 South corridor was still years away from becoming one of Nashville's most walkable, most visited retail strips. The café welcomed its first guests as a specialty coffee shop and all-day bakery, and the bungalow setting gave it a homier, more residential feel than a typical downtown coffee counter. In 2011, the business was purchased by a small group of partners who expanded well beyond the original coffee-and-pastry concept, growing Frothy Monkey into a full all-day restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner alongside its coffee program, plus craft cocktails, local beer, and wine. That evolution let Frothy Monkey become a genuine all-hours destination on 12 South rather than a morning-only coffee stop, and the concept has since expanded to additional Nashville locations along with outposts in Franklin and Chattanooga. The 12 South original has kept its charming indoor seating even as it added outdoor space and a beer garden to keep up with the neighborhood's growth, and it's become one of the strip's most reliable people-watching spots — a no-reservations café built for lingering rather than a quick in-and-out coffee run. That combination of specialty coffee roots and a full-service, all-day restaurant model is part of what's kept Frothy Monkey busy at nearly every hour it's open, a different proposition than a shop built purely around espresso and pour-overs — coffee is still central to the identity, but it now shares the stage with a genuine kitchen. For a Nashville coffee list, Frothy Monkey is the essential "coffee shop that grew into an all-day café" entry — a 2004 bungalow original on 12 South that expanded into a full restaurant and bar without ever losing its identity as a specialty coffee roaster first.
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About Crema Coffee Roasters
About Frothy Monkey (12 South)
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