In Memphis, the local coffee shop scene has grown from zero a few decades ago to more than 30 today, not counting Starbucks, which arrived in the late 1990s and has since multiplied, or the various kiosks, carts and trucks that further diversify offerings. 

As shops have gotten more serious about these dark arts and home setups increasingly mimic what professional baristas can concoct, coffee connoisseurship is definitely on the rise. 

Cup after cup: From Otherlands to Comeback to the Anti Gentrification Coffee Club

For most coffee-shop customers, though, good coffee is a necessity, but better or best isn’t determinative. 

It’s perhaps primarily a question of place.

Coffee shops are companionable spaces, whether you’re chatting with friends, having an informal meeting or just communing with a laptop or a book. 

And Memphis today offers more choices than ever before.

Shops that take their coffee very seriously. Shops that don’t as much. Shops in high-rises and hotels, in megachurches, college strips or suburban squares. Shops connected to skate parks or pottery studios or bike shops.

Sound Bites takes a sip with Grind City Coffee Xpo organizer Daniel Lynn

What’s the line between a coffee shop and a restaurant that has good coffee? Judgment calls all. 

This first of three Memphis coffee-shop guides scopes out the scene Downtown. (Sequels over the next two weeks will tackle Midtown and East Memphis/suburban Memphis.) 

This installment was written from a leather wall seat at Comeback Coffee, with a specialty latte and Kinfolk biscuit sandwich. At the bar at the Arrive Hotel, with a bourbon mocha latte and a hand pie. At a window seat across from City Hall at Qahwa, with an iced coffee and croissant.

Bluff City Coffee & Bakery 

• The gist: Long-standing (circa 2006) espresso-based bar in the heart of the South Main Arts District. 
• Location: 505 S. Main St.
• Hours: 6:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Monday-Saturday; 8 a.m.-1 p.m., Sunday 
• Coffee basics: All coffee drinks are espresso-based. Not a roaster, but they package and sell their own house blends. 
• Specialty drinks: The Haley’s Comet is a latte with Oregon Chai and caramel apple syrup. Also have smoothies and frozen mochaccinos. 
• Pastry situation: A deep menu, all baked by the shop off-site, including popular house “pop tarts” (Nutella or raspberry), muffins, mini-loaves, dense cheese Danish pastries and crumbly cookies. Olive oil and strawberry cakes are standards. 
• Other menu notes: A large sandwich menu for both breakfast and lunch. Biscuit sandwiches at breakfast. Boxed lunches. 
• Atmosphere: Only recently lifted COVID restrictions on extended in-shop stays. Now back to normal as a low-key South Main work and meet-up spot. Walls adorned with large prints of Don Newman photos of Downtown Memphis at mid-century. The COVID-era “general store” concept, with grab-and-go items, remains. 
• Outdoor seating: A couple of sidewalk tables. 
• Web: bluffcitycoffee.com 
• Instagram: @bluffcitycoffee

After delay, Grind City ‘Xpo’ brings Memphis coffee community together

Boycott Coffee

• The gist: An activist-oriented pop-up enterprise that opened its small physical space about a year ago.
• Location: 240 Madison Ave., in the Commonwealth Building
• Hours: 6:30 a.m.-11 a.m., Monday-Tuesday; 6:30 a.m.-2 p.m., Wednesday-Friday; 8 a.m.-1 p.m., Saturday-Sunday. 
• Coffee basics: They roast their own beans for a full espresso bar, pour overs and cold brew. Dairy free.
• Specialty drinks: Specialty drinks both regular and seasonal, and not all coffee. The Burnout is a latte using a house-made syrup of cayenne, ginger root and brown sugar. The “Cruel Summer Vibes” menu, lingering into the fall, has included the refreshing “Crimson & Clove” (clove, mint and hibiscus).
• Pastry situation: Small selection of local pastries. 
• Other menu notes: No lunch menu.
• Atmosphere: A small one-room shop with two-tone, peach-colored walls, on the bottom floor of a recently renovated office building, next door to the offices of Just City and across the street from the Downtown YMCA. Play some Simpsons pinball while you wait for your drink, check out the old-school cigarette vending machine and muse on the adventurous, curious art installations. A coffee shop with a “vision” statement, which reads in part: “We call on you to question how coffee is really made & who it belongs to along the value chain … to strive to make coffee better for the people who grow it, serve it, and enjoy it.”
• Outdoor seating: None.
• Web: boycottcoffee.com
• Instagram: @boycottcoffee 

Inked: Construction begins on BluffCakes in Germantown, second Scooter’s Coffee location

Café Keough 

• The gist: Spacious, casual but elegant European-style Downtown cafe that opened in 2013. 
• Location: 12 S. Main St., between Madison and Monroe avenues, on the bottom floor of the century-old Commerce Title building. 
• Hours: 8 a.m.-2 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday
• Coffee basics: Drip coffee and full espresso bar. 
• Specialty drinks: The Cafe Keough, a latte with Irish cream. Liquor and wine available at lunch. 
• Pastry situation: Croissants, muffins and quiches wrapped to go. 
• Other menu notes: Breakfast menu includes made-to-order egg dishes you won’t find often, such as an egg-and-potato frittata and eggs en cocotte (baked eggs). A large sandwich and salad menu at lunch. 
• Atmosphere: Dark, cool and stately, with high ceilings and chandeliers and huge columns along a nearly room-length bar and open kitchen. Big windows looking out on Main Street. A mix of Downtown residents and workers and what seems to be a healthy amount of travelers. 
• Outdoor seating: A few gated sidewalk seats along the Main Street mall.
• Web: cafekeough.com 
• Instagram: @cafe_keough 

At Kinfolk breakfast, big biscuits are only the beginning

Comeback Coffee 

• The gist: Opened in 2019 in a century-old Pinch District building, a bustling neighborhood specialty coffee shop waiting for its neighborhood to catch up, or “come back.”
• Location: 358 N. Main St.
• Hours: 8 a.m.-3 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday; 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Sunday
• Coffee basics: A multi-roaster showcasing small-batch beans from near and far, posted on their menu board. Drip coffee, flash-chill and full espresso bar. Doesn’t offer pour overs. 
• Specialty drinks: A changing seasonal drink menu that, for fall/winter, includes the Yule Cat (double-espresso latte with Christmas cookie spices) and the Matcha Dew (matcha latte with yuzu cardamon cold foam). They’re building out a separate space next door to produce and sell their popular canned coffee sodas, which are in the coffee shop cold case and can also be found in other places around town. Signature sodas are the strawberry-lime Field Day and the lemon-thyme Southern Style. 
• Pastry situation: The slice-o-cake-shaped lemon-blueberry scones, made in-house, are the delicious staple, but the recent seasonal-variation pumpkin ones elevate the much-maligned era of “pumpkin spice.”
• Other menu notes: The weekend “Kinfolk” breakfast pop-up, featuring cathead biscuits and more, is one of the best day-starters in town. Artesanal De Tela donuts available on many Sundays. No current lunch menu. 
• Atmosphere: One of the best combinations of elegant and comfortable you’ll find, exposed brick and blonde wood with cozy leather seating. Lap-toppers are common and welcome, with the Wi-Fi password – “StayAwhile,” written in neon across the wall — sending a message. Clientele trends young and fairly diverse. 
• Outdoor seating: The bricked-in two-level back patio is also one of the nicer outdoor coffee-shop spaces in town. 
• Web: comebackcoffeeus.com 
• Instagram: @comeback.coffee 

New Eats: Blanchard’s new patisserie trailer a good way to start the day

Crazy Gander Coffee Co. 

• The gist: Small, breezy shop that opened in the summer of 2021 on the bottom floor of a former bank building. 
• Location: 150 Madison Ave.
• Hours: 7 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday-Friday; 8 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 
• Coffee basics: Full espresso bar with drip coffee and cold brew, with beans from North Carolina roaster Fortuna. Order The Memphis, and you get their house drip coffee with a locally made Butteriffic shortbread cookie. 
• Specialty drinks: Try the Bucktown latte, the house specialty, hot or cold, lightly sweet with honey and coconut milk and a dusting of cayenne to give your tongue a tingle. Frappes available, including a Butteriffic and cookies & cream. There are also changing seasonal specials. 
• Pastry situation: Solid croissants and Danish pastries, not made in-house. Beneva Mayweather cinnamon rolls, Butteriffic cookies and Dave’s Bagels, among local items.
• Other menu notes: No lunch menu.
• Atmosphere: A long, narrow single room with high ceilings and original tile and hardwood floors. A garage-style door covers most of the front, raised to provide loads of fresh air on nice days. Groupings of cushy chairs at the front and back, most seating along a shop-length high wooden bar with plenty of outlets. Drink-prep instruction for baristas is charmingly scribbled in black marker on the subway tile behind the counter. A street map of the broader neighborhood across the whole of one wall. The coffee-sipping “Crow Lady” mural on the building’s west wall might be the best outside art of any Memphis coffee shop. Youngish clientele, both Downtown office-worker professional and student casual.
• Outdoor seating: A couple of sidewalk hightops on good-weather days. 
• Web: crazygander.com 
• Instagram: @crazygandercoffeeco 

Merger with Memphis group takes regional coffee company public

Dr. Bean’s Coffee & Tea Emporium 

• The gist: Local roasting pioneer’s corner “shop” inside South Main’s Stock & Belle store. 
• Location: 387 S. Main St.
• Hours: 7 a.m.-6 p.m., Monday-Saturday; 8 a.m.-4 p.m., Sunday
• Coffee basics: They roast their own beans, off-site, which can also be purchased in-house (and elsewhere). Espresso bar with pour overs available and cold brew on tap. 
• Specialty drinks: As the name suggests, plenty of tea options, from their own blends, and also specialty lattes, including a nice lavender-honey on a recent visit. 
• Pastry situation: A smattering of local muffin/bagel/cookie options at the register. 
• Other menu notes: No lunch menu. 
• Atmosphere: Takes up one corner of the large, open ground floor of Stock & Belle. Not a lot of seating but a mix, with one long bar, a big work table and a couple of couches and comfy chairs. Full of plants and natural light. A great spot for shorter visits. 
• Outdoor seating: None, but benches along South Main. 
• Web: Product purchase site here. 
• Instagram: @drbeanscoffeeandtea 

Downtown’s Talk Shop hopes to speak locals’ language, too

Edge Alley 

• The gist: Upscale brunch and lunch spot with ambitious in-house coffee program.
• Location: 600 Monroe Ave., in the Edge District
• Hours: 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m., Wednesday-Friday; 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m., Saturday-Sunday
• Coffee basics: They roast beans right behind the counter at their espresso bar. 
• Specialty drinks: A “coffee concoctions” menu featuring options such as the How Now Brown Cow (salted hazelnut cappuccino) and Orange is the New Black (Tea), a Thai-style variation with lychee-infused black tea, fresh carrot juice, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. At brunch, The Good Stuff is their house-roasted coffee with a shot of bourbon, vanilla bean whip and cinnamon. 
• Pastry situation: Cinnamon sticky bread on the shareables menu, marmalade tart and bread pudding on the dessert menu. 
• Other menu notes: Full breakfast/brunch and lunch menus, including elevated sandwiches, salads, shrimp & grits, breakfast plates and more. A full bar with wine, spirits and cocktails. 
• Atmosphere: Much more restaurant than coffee shop, but included for the quality of their coffee program. Good for a lunch meeting or to get some quick work done with good food and drink, but not a place to linger. A beautiful space with natural light from the front and above, part industrial, part finished. Lots of seating types, from two and four-tops to solo bar seats along the front window (which rolls up, garage-style) and big community-style tables. Lots of great art. 
• Outdoor seating: The shaded and gated front patio has some of the best sidewalk seats in town. 
• Web: edge-alley.com 
• Instagram: edge_alley

Austin transplant to open Big River Market in South Main

Qahwa Coffee Bar 

• The gist: Longtime Downtown staple in the heart of the government district. 
• Location: 109 N. Main St., on bottom floor of Claridge House condominiums building. 
• Hours: 7 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Monday-Friday; 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 
• Coffee basics: “Qahwa” is Arabic for coffee, which you can find in all forms here, including pour overs and French press. Using Thunderhead Coffee out of Mississippi
• Specialty drinks: The Qahwa Signature is a latte with a mix of white and dark chocolate and whipped topping. The Memphis Mint is a dark chocolate and peppermint variation. Might be the only shop in town to offer Turkish coffee, an unfiltered preparation using finely ground beans. Also has smoothies, frappes and kombucha, but the “nitrogen bar” is no longer active. 
• Pastry situation: Chocolate, plain and turkey sausage croissants. Bagels and big blueberry muffins. Basic but solid. 
• Other menu notes: Roasted turkey sandwiches, cranberry-pecan chicken salad and grilled cheeses, among the lunch-menu options.
• Atmosphere: Clientele is a mix of Downtown residents, many seemingly from the condos upstairs, and Downtown workers from City Hall and the other government buildings nearby. Loads of regulars in the morning, with friendly owner Farhat “Fred” Othmani usually behind the counter. The best work spot might be a long-table section along big windows looking out at City Hall. Also a few four-tops and cushy couches, with a couple of high-tops with built-in chess boards. For privacy, a lone table tucked into a former bank vault in the back is one of the more unique seats in town. Not recommended if you’re claustrophobic.
• Outdoor seating: None, but nearby benches on Main Street and at Fourth Bluff Park.
• Web: None.
• Instagram: @qahwacoffeebar

Wine bar in Edge District, cafe on Jackson move forward

Tamp and Tap 

• The gist: A coffee-and-beer combo shop in the heart of Downtown. The closest local shop to FedExForum.
• Location: 122 Gayoso Ave., on the bottom floor of the Van Vleet Flats building.
• Hours: 7 a.m.-2 p.m., Monday-Friday; 8 a.m.-2 p.m., Saturday-Sunday. 
• Coffee basics: Uses Chicago’s Metropolis Coffee, with whole beans sold on-site. Full espresso bar with drip, pour over and nitro cold brew. 
• Specialty drinks: Specialty drinks include the Cannonball Express (chai and espresso latte), Panamerican (white chocolate and Irish cream latte) and Hi-Octane (Coca-Cola, espresso and vanilla, on ice). They also boast seven different “espresso shooters.” Tamp and Tap was originally opened as a dual craft coffee/beer concept. The beer part is technically still available, but with their current daily 2 p.m. closing time, is now downplayed. 
• Pastry situation: Muffins, bars and Danish pastries aren’t made in-house but are wrapped to go and look good. Also, yogurt parfaits ready to go. 
• Other menu notes: Solid breakfast burritos served all day and more-than-solid sandwiches and salads. They proudly display their first-place win in the 2015 Memphis Grilled Cheese Festival, and it’s indeed a good grilled cheese. 
• Atmosphere: One of the more unusual shops in town, with rustic exposed wood like an upscale cabin rental, big concrete columns, high ceilings and an enormous crescent-shaped bar. Lots of windows but not as much foot traffic tucked away on alley-like Gayoso, between Second and Main streets. A TV and cushy seats in the corner, hooked up with a 1990s-era Nintendo. Work meetings and solo settling-in are welcomed. A Downtown office worker favorite. 
• Outdoor seating: A few sidewalk tables. 
• Web: tampandtap.com
• Instagram: @tampandtap 

New Eats: Hustle & Dough

Vice & Virtue Coffee 

• The gist: Perfect coffee-and-pastry pairing in a new-that-feels-old hotel lobby. Named Tennessee’s best coffee shop on a “Food & Wine” magazine list this year.
• Location: 477 S. Main St., in the lobby of the Arrive Hotel in the South Main Arts District.
• Hours: 7 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday-Thursday; 7 a.m.-5 p.m., Friday-Sunday
• Coffee basics: Began as an artisan roasting operation, selling home-roasted beans and cups of coffee at Cooper-Young Farmers Market. You can buy bags of their beans, roasted off-site, here and elsewhere around town. Full espresso bar with drip coffee and cold brew.
• Specialty drinks: Signature drink is a bourbon mocha, using Blue Note Bourbon barrel-aged espresso with steamed milk and house-made mocha syrup. Keep an eye on rotating specialty drinks, including a nice lemon/ginger-syrup Arnold Palmer this summer, which gave way as temps cooled to a Sweetie Pie Chai (chai concentrate, steamed milk and sweet potato pie syrup). 
• Pastry situation: Vice & Virtue shares a corner with the bakery Hustle & Dough (ampersand overload!), where the pastry situation is elite. Try the hand pies, tarts or maybe the city’s best (big) chocolate chip cookie. Can sometimes also get whole loaves of bread. 
• Other menu notes: A small but high-quality and suitably bread-forward breakfast/lunch menu from Hustle & Dough, with various toasts (avocado, jam & cultured butter, etc.), a beet panzanella, a pancetta “BLT” on French bread and more. 
• Atmosphere: Not your typical hotel lobby, it feels more like an early 20th century parlor room, albeit with dramatically high ceilings, and a nearly full wall rendering of the Memphis riverfront of an earlier era. There’s one flat table that can serve as a traditional (and likely shared) workspace, but mostly couches and plush chairs atop large rugs. During the morning and midday, it’s easy to grab a seat at the bar (Bar Hustle), which won’t be serving up booze and pizzas yet. Clientele is a mix of Downtown residents, South Main workers and suitcase-rolling travelers. A scene on weekend mornings, particularly Memphis Farmers Market Saturdays (done until spring). Perhaps the Memphis coffee shop in which you’re most likely to hear foreign accents (and I don’t mean from Up North). Also perhaps the Memphis coffee shop that is the safest indoor space for Very Good Dogs. 
• Outdoor seating: A few gated sidewalk tables.
• Web: vicevirturecoffee.com
• Instagram: @vicevirtuecoffee