Barista Parlor vs. Crema
So, your in Nashville for a couple of hours and you only have time to visit one coffee shop. What do you do? If your a local you base a lot of what you do on location. But what if going out of your way to get a good cup of coffee or a specific atmosphere is more important. When I knew I was coming to Nashville I knew of two shops I had to visit. Barista Parlor and Crema. I knew some people were more favorable to one than the other. For me they both have things that are extremely opposite but both make them good. So I've a couple paragraphs of my experiences for both of these spaces to help make your decision easy. But I also understand if you are new to specialty coffee, you might think either too daunting, expensive and the big green giant (st*b*ks) is more comfortable so you just never got around to it. There's no shame in that. But I do want this to make you more confident and give you an idea of what to expect. Most of this will probably be subjective because each experience is unique to an individual so in the end I believe you should visit both places.
BARISTA PARLOR (BP)
They have garage doors which I love. I always have. Always will. I wished it would have been summer so they could have been wide open. Either way they let in a pretty decent amount of natural light. We walked in and that's when I kind of noticed that the bar flow at BP doesn't really have a sense of direction. The place that you order from is shorter than the bar and it was a bit awkward. It actually took me a second to figure out were too order. Other than that they offer a lot of different roasters. Stumptown, Intelligentsia, Counter Culture. But there are great roasters in the Midwest that they could choose from but instead they go for those typical roasters on the coast (that are good don't get me wrong) but because they get coffee from further away it is more expensive so they jack their prices up to make a decent profit. After paying $4.00 for an espresso you think it would be amazing but it was just okay. Balanced. But nothing outstanding. I think they are planning on roasting so you might see some prices drop? I really don't know. They have a few specialty drinks and concoctions that tend to be seasonal which I can appreciate. They just came out with a spring drink: Chilled Espresso, Sweetened Lavender-Jasmine, Fresh Grapefruit all carbonated. Yummmmm! Sounds amazing. They also have pastries, chocolate, breakfast Sammy's, none of which I tried so I can not attest to any of them. I looked at reviews on the infamous breakfast sandwiches and they were mixed but I think for the most part people like them. As far as service goes, the guy who took my order was very friendly and genuinely answered all the questions I had. So in conclusion, my experience had good service, I had an okay espresso that cost $4.00, enjoyed the atmosphere, but ended up leaving like I had been a little let down.
BARISTA PARLOR (BP)
They have garage doors which I love. I always have. Always will. I wished it would have been summer so they could have been wide open. Either way they let in a pretty decent amount of natural light. We walked in and that's when I kind of noticed that the bar flow at BP doesn't really have a sense of direction. The place that you order from is shorter than the bar and it was a bit awkward. It actually took me a second to figure out were too order. Other than that they offer a lot of different roasters. Stumptown, Intelligentsia, Counter Culture. But there are great roasters in the Midwest that they could choose from but instead they go for those typical roasters on the coast (that are good don't get me wrong) but because they get coffee from further away it is more expensive so they jack their prices up to make a decent profit. After paying $4.00 for an espresso you think it would be amazing but it was just okay. Balanced. But nothing outstanding. I think they are planning on roasting so you might see some prices drop? I really don't know. They have a few specialty drinks and concoctions that tend to be seasonal which I can appreciate. They just came out with a spring drink: Chilled Espresso, Sweetened Lavender-Jasmine, Fresh Grapefruit all carbonated. Yummmmm! Sounds amazing. They also have pastries, chocolate, breakfast Sammy's, none of which I tried so I can not attest to any of them. I looked at reviews on the infamous breakfast sandwiches and they were mixed but I think for the most part people like them. As far as service goes, the guy who took my order was very friendly and genuinely answered all the questions I had. So in conclusion, my experience had good service, I had an okay espresso that cost $4.00, enjoyed the atmosphere, but ended up leaving like I had been a little let down.
CREMA
So the first thing about Crema that I liked was the outdoor seating in the front of the shop. It was a cold day so it was odd when we walked up that there was a guy with his headphones on sitting in the only patch of sun that was hitting the porch. But, when we walked in we found out why. It was slammed. People were everywhere standing with their mugs and the seating area was also crowded. I didn't get a chance to look at the menu when the girl at the bar asked us what we wanted. I asked her what they had on manual brew and she pointed to a sign behind her and it was just one and so I said that was fine and an espresso. So we paid and waited not too far from the counter and I saw her get coffee from an airpot and then put the mug on the counter and called my name. I went up and said that I had thought it was a pourover and she then rolled her eyes and grabbed the paper menus and said that those were the coffee's they had as pourover. But she said that the fetco recipe was good and then walked away to get a drink of water. I tried it and yes it was decently good but I still didn't understand what got lost in my communicating with her and why she didn't at least offer to make me something else. My espresso was decent as well. If you want to go to Crema just be ready to maybe have to fight for a seat.
So the first thing about Crema that I liked was the outdoor seating in the front of the shop. It was a cold day so it was odd when we walked up that there was a guy with his headphones on sitting in the only patch of sun that was hitting the porch. But, when we walked in we found out why. It was slammed. People were everywhere standing with their mugs and the seating area was also crowded. I didn't get a chance to look at the menu when the girl at the bar asked us what we wanted. I asked her what they had on manual brew and she pointed to a sign behind her and it was just one and so I said that was fine and an espresso. So we paid and waited not too far from the counter and I saw her get coffee from an airpot and then put the mug on the counter and called my name. I went up and said that I had thought it was a pourover and she then rolled her eyes and grabbed the paper menus and said that those were the coffee's they had as pourover. But she said that the fetco recipe was good and then walked away to get a drink of water. I tried it and yes it was decently good but I still didn't understand what got lost in my communicating with her and why she didn't at least offer to make me something else. My espresso was decent as well. If you want to go to Crema just be ready to maybe have to fight for a seat.
So I left Nashville not feeling fully satisfied. Maybe it was because of all the boot stores that were trying to rip me off or maybe it was because I felt like that city and I just didn't click. Anyways, I will leave it at that.