Retrograde Coffee

The coffee is roasted by the sister company, the bagels come out fresh every morning, and the latte with the house name on it is the Shagbark.

Lightspeed in the cup, bagels on the counter

Retrograde does not roast its own coffee. It comes from Lightspeed Coffee, the small-batch roaster the business runs as a sister company, which is why the espresso, batch brew and pour over all trace back to one source. The bar covers the range you would expect of a specialty shop without committing to a single format: cortados and lattes, hot chocolate, teas steeped fresh with a variety of herbs, and matcha for anyone off coffee that day. The named drinks carry the personality, the Shagbark Latte with oat milk first among them and the Purple Rain latte behind it.

A Nashville neighbourhood habit

The first shop opened in 2018 on historic Dickerson Pike at the edge of East Nashville, where it was the first full-service coffee shop on that stretch, and the business has since spread to City Heights, Ballpark Village in Germantown and Lost and Found. The framing has not changed: somewhere to gather, work, connect and pause, grown from one cafe into a hub for neighbours, professionals and artists. In practice that means laptop hours, short meetings and slow coffee, in rooms with big windows and a calm, deliberately inclusive feel.

The Germantown branch adds its own texture, a tiny shop along the Metro Nashville Greenway behind First Horizon Park, good for a coffee mid-walk or remote work in the adjacent Starling lobby. It takes adults and children equally, and there are London-style phone booths at the back.

Order the Shagbark Latte and a bagel

Pair a named drink with something from the bake case. The Shagbark Latte with oat milk is the clearest house latte, the Purple Rain is the other named specialty, and matcha, hot chocolate and herbal tea fill out the non-espresso side.

Food is part of the visit rather than a garnish on it. Bagels and pastries are baked fresh daily, with schmears to go alongside. The Bee-Hive, a bagel sandwich of vegan sausage, avocado and sprouts, is the named plant-based order, and a chocolate croissant is the simpler sweet. The safest first order is a bagel sandwich with a coffee, adding a croissant if the walk in has made you hungry.