eighth & Roast Fills Cups Throughout Nashville | Options

It’s not simply the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon — the frequency phantasm if you see one thing extra typically when you grow to be conscious of it. eighth & Roast espresso actually is round greater than it was. This 12 months, the South Nashville-based espresso model is projecting to roast greater than 3 times the quantity of espresso it did in 2023. The corporate’s variety of wholesale companions has elevated from 10 in 2017 to greater than 350 as we speak. A part of that development comes from the 2024 acquisition of Nashville roasting firm Good Citizen Espresso Co. and sister model Widespread Voice. 

And a part of the elevated visibility of eighth & Roast is because of high-profile partnerships and strategic development that may quickly make it a family title within the Nashville properties the place it isn’t already.

Final week, the Tennessee Titans named the family-owned eighth & Roast Espresso Co. the soccer group’s official espresso companion. The deal took about 9 months to finalize, and included providing cupping occasions for the Titans and taking them to go to a few of the farms eighth & Roast works with. Even then, eighth & Roast CEO Ed Reed says he was skeptical {that a} small firm like eighth & Roast was going to land such a giant deal.

“I can’t discover anybody of our dimension who has partnered on one thing like this degree, with the Titans or NFL franchises, no matter it might be, an organization of our dimension,” says Reed, admitting he’s just a little nervous. “It’s a whole lot of accountability. They noticed the worth of partnering with somebody based mostly in Nashville as a result of the Titans have grow to be very entrenched in the neighborhood. It’s humbling. I’d by no means anticipated our espresso firm to develop like this.”

This multiyear deal means eighth & Roast will provide followers with espresso within the present Nissan Stadium and within the new stadium when it opens as effectively. The Roaming Bean, a brand new cell espresso enterprise, serves eighth & Roast and is a part of the partnership.

“The Titans do a whole lot of superb issues very well,” says Cris Piper, proprietor and founding father of The Roaming Bean. “However espresso wasn’t essentially their power. So when the eighth & Roast crew informed me they acquired that contract, I used to be so excited for them. I used to be like, ‘Oh my God, we’re going to have some nice espresso on the stadium.’ However then they stated, ‘Piper, that’s not the rationale we’re calling. We’ve acquired a partnership alternative for you.’”

Piper says The Roaming Bean is presently serving espresso exterior the observe facility and shall be on the principle degree of the stadium close to Part 146 on sport days.

On her frequent travels by Europe, Piper — who was born in Germany — turned enamored of the cell espresso companies serving prospects in picturesque piazzas and wished to deliver that have to Nashville. She additionally turned enamored of the Piaggio Ape, a three-wheeled electrical car constructed on a moped body. Piper says The Roaming Bean is the primary such three-wheeled espresso cart in Nashville. As a result of it’s small and electrical, it could actually slot in many elevators and will be operated inside at a conference or particular occasion.

Piper is obsessed with espresso — she’s had Miele espresso machines constructed into two completely different homes. When she moved to Nashville seven years in the past, she started looking for her new favourite native roaster. “I had my first cup of eighth & Roast espresso after I acquired right here, and I fell in love instantly,” she says. In her earlier profession, which she stop to launch The Roaming Bean, she traveled continuously, and the eighth & Roast location on the Nashville Worldwide Airport was an everyday cease — so she knew she preferred to drink their espresso. However when she met their barista trainers and noticed the method they use to assist practice their wholesale companions, she knew eighth & Roast was the enterprise she wished to work with. She based The Roaming Bean earlier this 12 months.

When Hannah Schneider determined to deliver again her beloved Kettner Espresso firm, it was eighth & Roast’s coaching program and the corporate’s understanding of the hospitality trade — along with the great espresso — that satisfied Schneider and her companion Giselle Ruggeberg to make use of eighth & Roast within the relaunch. Ruggeberg owns Jade & Clover, a plant bar within the Gulch, the place Kettner Espresso opened earlier this 12 months as an ongoing residency. Kettner was as soon as positioned in East Nashville subsequent to The Bookshop, although that location was offered in 2022 and rebranded as Hanna Bee Espresso. Along with a conventional cup of espresso, the brand new Kettner serves strawberry foam matcha and pistachio latte, plus vegan and gluten-free pastries.

“We actually wished to remain native, hyperlocal, for this,” says Schneider, who has labored in Nashville hospitality for years — together with launching advertising and marketing agency BRND Home, which she offered in 2023. “Initially, I opened Kettner, merely for the expertise of a espresso store that felt pleasant, good and targeted on hospitality. Once we met with eighth & Roast and their crew, it felt like hospitality was the core of what they did.”

Reed owns eighth & Roast together with his brother Sam and Q Taylor, who was a childhood good friend of the Reeds. They acquired a majority stake within the firm in 2016, and took full possession in 2017. The trio additionally owned Sinema, the beloved restaurant that closed final 12 months after a decade in Melrose. When Sinema shuttered, the homeowners stored the closing culinary crew — government chef Shelby Briggs and pastry chef Caleigh Collins — on board to revamp and oversee the culinary program for the model’s espresso outlets and its catering efforts. The result’s a menu of signature gadgets, together with cheddar-bacon-and-chive scones, breakfast burritos and vegan brown sugar-streusel espresso cake. That menu has helped elevate the profile of the model’s espresso outlets on Eighth Avenue, Charlotte Avenue and in Midtown. The model additionally has a few outlets it doesn’t handle, together with on the airport and inside Cover by Hilton Nashville Downtown.

eighth & Roast’s providers — along with promoting espresso — embody menu improvement, consulting on gear choice and set up, employees coaching, full store buildout, and ongoing upkeep and high quality management. The corporate has additionally simply launched a “white label” partnership. Jaime Bacalan wished to open a espresso store inside Rooted, his boutique clothes and shoe retailer, which expanded to a bigger location within the Gulch this 12 months. Every thing within the store is branded as Café Rooted, and eighth & Roast is the well-advertised espresso provider. 

“It’s not solely a income car, however it’s one thing comfy and conversational, permitting friends to have one thing in hand whereas spending time within the store,” Bacalan says.

eighth & Roast co-owner Taylor was a buyer of Rooted, and that relationship helped open the doorways to the deal. “Their crew was instrumental in serving to us get began, they usually’ve stayed carefully linked and obtainable,” Bacalan says. ”From wholesale to coaching to visibility, they make every little thing simpler for us.”

For all the expansion and new initiatives, Reed is staying targeted.

“I simply wish to first grow to be the most effective espresso in Nashville,” Reed says. “And be often called that, or no less than be within the dialog for that, which I feel we’re.”