Killebrew Coffee

The biscuits are oversized and the coffees sometimes arrive with a shimmer in them. Killebrew has been running on the ground floor of the Thompson Nashville in the Gulch since early November 2016, and it has never pretended to be a quiet hotel amenity. The name reaches back into state history: J.B. Killebrew was Tennessee's first Commissioner of Agriculture.

Revelator at the start, glitter later

The coffee programme opened on Revelator, the roaster named at the launch, and paired it with a broad tea list from the first day. The bones have not changed: espresso drinks, brewed coffee, tea made by a barista rather than pulled from a self-serve urn, and food you can carry out with you.

What has grown around that is the seasonal side. Glitter coffees are the drinks people name first, and non-dairy is properly handled, with coconut milk available and a coconut milk latte among the regular orders. The seasonal board moves often enough to give regulars something to check on the way past.

Fourteen seats and a hotel lobby

The original room was a bright fourteen-seat cafe designed by Parts and Labor Design, and that number explains the experience better than any description of the finish. It is compact and polished, with indoor and outdoor seating, and it fills up.

Use it as a hotel-anchored neighbourhood coffee shop rather than a work cafe. A line can build inside the lobby at peak, and the format is set up for a quick coffee, a pastry and something portable before moving on through the Gulch. When the counter is clear, service moves fast.

Order the glitter coffee, then look at the biscuits

The glitter coffee is the drink most closely tied to Killebrew and the one to order if you want the version of the cafe that people describe to each other. If that is not the mood, the coffee foundation is straightforward and the seasonal list is the other place to look.

The pastry case is the reason to stay a minute longer. The opening pastry programme came out of the team behind the New Orleans bakery Willa Jean, and the biscuits were the item everyone singled out. Breakfast sandwiches, muffins, fresh puffs and grab-and-go items fill the rest of the case. The most grounded order is a biscuit with coffee, and a breakfast sandwich if the morning needs more than that.