Little Rad Market

Mango matcha is the drink that gives Little Rad Market its signature, and the counter it comes from sits inside a small Belle Meade market rather than a café. Coffee and espresso come from a partnership with Sightglass Coffee, so the espresso classics have a named roaster behind them rather than whatever the wholesaler sent.

Drinks and sweets in Nashville

The drinks list runs from espresso standards into seasonal invention. Sweet potato latte and raspberry pistachio latte are the clearest examples of a bar that does not stop at vanilla and caramel, while mango matcha and hot matcha anchor the matcha side for anyone skipping coffee.

The sweet counter is specific rather than generic: vegan baked goods, a banana chocolate muffin, chocolate items and frozen Greek yogurt. Between them, a coffee run can become a pastry stop or a dessert stop without changing venues. The vegan bakes are made to stand on their own rather than as a substitute version of something else, which is the same instinct that put mango in the matcha.

Part café, part market, part dinner

Little Rad Market works as a quick-service neighbourhood market with a café counter attached. Coffee, pastries, breakfast and lunch sit alongside fresh and frozen takeaway dinners, which places it somewhere between café, small grocer and prepared-food counter.

The scratch-made food and curated goods framing holds up on the shelves: high-quality grocery items, organic snacks, salads, breakfast plates and frozen meals. The room is compact and neighbourhood-oriented, small and welcoming enough that one visit might be a cortado and a vegan bake, and the next might add frozen Greek yogurt, a bag of snacks and a lasagna for later.

Order the mango matcha first

Start with the mango matcha, the most distinctive drink here. It separates the shop from a basic espresso menu, and a hot matcha sits next to it for anyone who wants green tea straight and unsweetened.

If coffee is the priority, use the Sightglass relationship: a cortado, an Americano or another espresso classic, then check which seasonal latte is running, sweet potato or raspberry pistachio. For food, the strongest named categories are vegan baked goods, the banana chocolate muffin, salads, breakfast plates and frozen Greek yogurt. Beyond a snack, the frozen meals make it a place to solve dinner on the way out.