Second Mugging in East Nashville

Oh yeah, Germantown? East Nashville sees your new coffeehouse and raises it to two—on the same block of Eastland Avenue. Currently in the finishing stages is Ugly Mugs Coffee & Tea at 1900 Eastland in the Walden building. Hmmm, you say—isn't that right across the street from the East Side's Portland Brew outpost at 1921 Eastland? Indeed it is, but owners Jarod and Courtney Delozier say the folks at Portland Brew have been nothing but encouraging.

"Our hope is that we will complement them in some ways and hopefully help East Nashville grow as a local coffeehouse district," Jarod says. "My wife and I have always talked about having a place where we could stand behind the counter and watch people have conversations and meet for the first time."

Ugly Mugs will stock Drew's Brews, the Nashville upstart that's the java of choice for Crema and Sip, along with eight to 10 loose-leaf teas provided by Minnesota-based TeaSource. Jarod says the shop will serve iced teas in summer as well as homemade chai made without concentrates. He adds that Ugly Mugs will offer pastries, breakfast items and desserts, but they won't be made in house: he says he'd rather outsource to local specialists such as The Sugar Bar than "serve mediocre food." For the same reason, he says that instead of serving smoothies he'll direct people to Fresh Blends, the concentrate-free juice bar that will open next door in the same building.

Jarod hopes to be open by mid-July, at which time Ugly Mugs will start booking live music as well. In the meantime, enough about East Nashville. Now that java mills rival cupcakeries as Nashville's growth industry of the moment, where's the coffeehouse that Woodbine wants so desperately—preferably within walking distance of Peachtree Street?

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