A hip Nashville coffee chain that’s been brewing for 14 years just ran out of steam at three of its seven locations.
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Barista Parlor owner Andy Mumma shuttered three locations—Germantown, Sylvan Supply, and Hillsboro Village—on Jan. 11. Mumma stated that the closures were due to rising operational costs.
“My rents have skyrocketed over the years, taxes have increased every year, cost of goods sold are much higher, labor, even green coffee is 30% more,” Mumma recently told The Tennessean. “Just can’t make it work with the current form.”
Barista Parlor debuted its flagship East Nashville location on Gallatin Pike in 2012. Over the past decade, founder Mumma has expanded the coffee chain to include wholesale beans, $20 coffee subscriptions, and a presence in Kentucky.
The coffee connoisseur told the outlet it’s time to scale back and focus on Barista Parlor’s remaining locations in East Nashville, the Nashville International Airport, and the W Hotel in the Gulch. This meant the coffee stopped flowing at the Germantown, Sylvan Supply, and Hillsboro Village cafes on Jan. 11.
Barista Parlor Owner Plans to Revamp Original Location
The Barista Parlor at 519 Gallatin Ave. will temporarily close soon for renovations. Mumma plans to add coffee roasting facilities and “concentrate on how it was when (he) first opened” the shop.
“It just hasn’t been fun for me for years,” a candid Mumma told The Nashville Scene. “I want to make it fun again, I want to make it exciting for me, for the guests. I think the best way to do this is to just concentrate, bring it all back, and just concentrate on making [the East Nashville location] awesome again.”
Approximately 15 employees will lose their jobs as a result of the closures, Mumma told The Tennessean.
That said, the roast master pointed out that a lot of Nashville area restaurants and bars are feeling the squeeze in the city’s current economy.
“I don’t think high cost of goods, high insurance, high rent, high taxes, high labor is specific to BP,” Mumma stressed to the Scene. “This is something that I think a lot of bars and restaurants are having to overcome. What we got, in its current form, is no longer sustainable. It was when taxes were affordable and rents were half what they are now and all that. But it’s just no longer possible.”