Coffee shops and cafes in Tennessee

Map listings as of September 2026 show 2,614 coffee shops and cafes in Tennessee. 969 of them (37%) are chain locations, against 39% across the U.S. That is 9.3 per 10,000 households, 15% below the U.S. rate of 11.0.

Household spending on food away from home in Tennessee comes to about $10.4B a year: $3,670 per household, 10% below the U.S. average. That is about $4M of household spending for each cafe on map listings, 7% above the U.S. figure of $3.7M. That spending covers all food away from home, which coffee shops and cafes share with other businesses in the trade.

In 2023, official counts showed 1,511 businesses with payroll in Tennessee classed as snack and nonalcoholic beverage bars, up 62.3% from 2019. That is one for every 1,869 households, against one for every 1,518 across the U.S. Across the U.S., the count rose 24.3% over the same years. The official count takes in all snack and nonalcoholic beverage bars, not only coffee shops and cafes: bakeries and dessert shops are counted too. Since fiscal 2022, 77 SBA-backed loans worth $43.4M have gone to businesses classed as snack and nonalcoholic beverage bars in Tennessee.

Among the 50 states and DC, Tennessee ranks #20 for coffee shops and cafes, with a Groundwork market score of 59 (upper middle). Of the 10 scored metro areas in or partly in Tennessee, the Knoxville metro area scores highest (67). Of the 17 scored small-town markets in or partly in Tennessee, the Fayetteville area scores highest (78).