South City coffee roaster Sump Coffee will open a second location in Nashville, Tennessee this fall. Sump’s space in the OneC1TY development in the West Nashville/Midtown neighborhood will be “as close to (the Nashville Pastaria location) as we can be and still be separate,” said Sump owner Scott Carey.
The same developer that is bringing Gerard Craft’s Pastaria to the Tennessee capitol approached him about opening a second location in the 19-acre development. Carey said a Sump customer (and Nashville native) recently described the Midtown neighborhood as a “trendy, youthful part of town.”
Despite the distance between locations, Sump in Nashville will maintain the St. Louis experience, roasting beans onsite and maintain its coffee-centric focus. “We’re going to offer the same emphasis,” Carey said. “But like we did here, we’ll see what the reception is and make adjustments from there.”
The new 50-seat location is located between two universities and is on a major thoroughfare, which Carey said could prompt him to expand Sump’s menu offerings to include decaffeinated coffee and sweeteners. He said he may also offer pastries made at neighboring Pastaria.
Carey is dispatching a long-time Sump employee to Nashville to manage the new location, and he will split his time between St. Louis and Nashville for a few months after the anticipated October opening to ensure continuity. “To build a brand in a brand-new market will require a big investment of my time,” Carey said. “But I’m not going to abandon the ship we sailed from up here.”
This article appears in May 2016.