Barista Parlor
519 Gallatin Ave B, Nashville, TN , KY 37206
I expected to like BP. The building, neighborhood, and signage all pointed to this being my kind of place, but my experience was less than hoped for.
Coffee:
This is a big place and they make a showy display of their coffee equipment. So, when I asked them what kind of beans I had to choose from, I was surprised that there was only one for both drip coffee and espresso. My next surprise was when they told me that everything would be in to-go cups, including my cortado. For a big space with lots of seating, this seemed quite curious. I made a mention of being disappointed as I view a cortado as a delicate and precise, little gem with its presentation being a meaningful part of the experience. “Only to-go cups today” she said and, spun around to get my drip. A bit later, while capturing images of the shop I noticed several short stacks of Gibraltar glasses, right next to several stacks of ceramic mugs. Hmm. Maybe their dishwasher isn’t working? Maybe they were being lazy. Given the transactional exchange I had with the barista, I believe the second option is more likely. I can’t even tell you what type of bean they served up. It was decent, and maybe they did tell me, but my experience had been soiled. No lumps of goodness at BP today.
Barista:
Transactional, as I’ve already said. Not engaging and sub par in my view. While their equipment is indicative of an artisanal approach to making coffee the service experience would have been more appropriately paired with a thermos.
Vibe:
It’s in a cool neighborhood. A repurposed industrial brick building with brick walls, no pillars, and a barista station that is a theatre-in-the-round experience with customer space encircling the barista area which had low counters and clear sight lines to all operations. One wall is a bank of garage doors that look they open up to their outside space. I really liked the layout. They had a large art pixilated art installation, one of those images that you can only make out when you squint and look through your lashes so as to make it clear by blurring the pixilation. Cool. Solid plank, live edge tables and counters throughout the shop were visually striking. And they had a handful of vintage motorcycles, one with a sidecar, set up at various locations because… they’re cool. I think that was the same reason they had vintage mountings of antlers and animal heads on the walls, and a couple of old theater seats, and a big tool box, and some old vintage radio cabinets, a non working vintage refrigerator, an old checkered racing flag and a showy storage rack for their vinyl album collection with a sign that said, “Do not handle records”. It was a mishmash of stuff without a theme. The same is true of their branding. Some racing themed stuff, monster trucks, Indy cars, an anchor, a multicolored snake holding a flower in it’s mouth… I couldn’t tell you what their logo is but the space is filled with cool.
Make You Better
Better hiring, training, or both. Implementation of a customer centric culture. Its very cool space, and they have great equipment, its just ironic and unfortunate that the experience was so incongruent with their name. I can only hope my encounter was a singularly bad day.
~ Clyde <3