A new coffee shop is on a mission to give back to the community. Roger Patel is bringing Compassion Coffeehouse to Mt. Juliet, taking a former Dairy Queen space at 11674 Lebanon Road.
Alongside coffee offerings, the shop will serve all-day breakfast items like sandwiches, avocado toast and bagels, as well as pastries, burritos and wraps and acai bowls. However, the shop is designed to be much more than a grab-and-go coffee shop.
Patel has long desired to build a business to give back to the community. With Compassion Coffeehouse, Patel is targeting two local issues that he hopes to combat: homelessness among military veterans and hunger in local schools.
“Lots of organization give out all over the world as far as assistance to different causes, but I wanted to do something that is local to the kids in the community,” Patel said. “[I want] everybody to actually give back to that same community as well.”
For Patel, ending hunger in local schools is personal. He recalls growing up and sometimes not having enough money to eat. Now, he is hoping to ensure children in his community do not have to experience that pain.
“I didn’t really grow up with a lot of financial resources,” Patel said. “I always envisioned that I would give back in some kind of way if I ever got to that point where I started my own concept or business.”
Patel draws on experience operating roughly 100 restaurants, ranging from quick-service spots to bars. He settled on coffee for this business model because it is rather universally loved and known for bringing people together.
To reflect his community-centered business, the coffeehouse itself will be built to facilitate community rather than falling into a solely drive-thru business model.
“We want to create the environment where you can come in, pop your laptop out, come sit down on one of our couches and just let the moment take your stress away,” Patel said.
The spot is currently under construction and Patel hopes to open in mid-December. In the future, he hopes to expand to additional locations in Nashville and beyond.
“We want to operate the best coffee house in Mount Juliet. Our aspiration is to grow many more coffee locations out there, just because I think we can. The bigger we get, the bigger we can give back,” Patel said. “We want to be just more than just an exceptional cup of coffee. We want to create a supportive community space, and that really helps to end that homelessness that I mentioned to you and also to help end hunger for our local kids as well. So if our community supports us, we definitely will be supporting the community back. Hopefully they’ll lead us to more opportunities throughout the city of Nashville, the state of Tennessee and the U.S.”
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