Coolship Coffee Co. will open its first standalone location at Nashville International Airport (BNA), 1 Terminal Drive, Nashville, with the new shop coming to Concourse B. The opening is part of BNA’s larger concessions expansion, which includes the $855 million reconstruction of Concourse A, expected to open in 2028. The Tennessean reported Coolship among the local concepts joining the airport’s growing concessions lineup.
“This is the first standalone brick-and-mortar for us,” founder and CEO Wesley Keegan told WhatNow. “We’ve done coffee in our brewery. We’ve got eight locations, and Coolship is kind of a daytime café that exists in all of the brewery tap rooms. So there’s technically eight locations.”
Coolship began as an extension of TailGate Brewery’s coffee program and has since developed into a growing brand of its own. Keegan said the BNA location is an opportunity to bring that experience into a dedicated space while maintaining the character of a Nashville coffee shop.
“We want it to be familiar for Nashville locals and in line with our craft approach to all the different things that we do,” Keegan said. “They’ll find familiar flavors, cold brews and the feel of a local café, rather than a big national brand.”
That distinction is particularly important in an airport environment, where Keegan said Coolship has to balance speed with quality. “We take the local and community feel really seriously,” he said. “There’s an ability to service the volume, make sure people are catching their flights on time, but still provide great products.”
The menu will include coffee on draft, lattes, matcha, chai, cold brew on draft and canned cold brew. Keegan said Coolship is also launching a new canned cold brew latte, while four cold brew varieties will be made with oat milk and no added sugar. Snacks will round out the offering.
Keegan said the menu was also developed with the airport’s customer base in mind. “This is the American Airlines terminal, and the primary airline is going to have younger people that care about the food that they eat, where it comes from and what’s in it,” he said. “We’re going to make sure that we’re fitting that bill too.”
TailGate already operates at BNA in Terminal C, and Keegan said the brewery has worked with the airport since 2020. He sees the Coolship opening as a natural extension of that relationship, particularly because BNA has emphasized bringing strong local brands into its concessions program.
“Very few brands have more than one location,” Keegan said, noting that structure created an opportunity for TailGate to bring a separate concept to the airport. “We have this great relationship, but we also have a different company, so we know how to work with the airport.”
For the Coolship operation, the company is partnering with M2 Concepts and Rick Mickens. “You’ve got to be airport people to run an airport brand, so we partner with an airport operator,” Keegan said. “We couldn’t be more excited to work with them. They’re wonderful people, and they’re experts at what they do.”
For Keegan, the expansion represents a meaningful next step for what began as a small coffee project inside TailGate. “Coolship is kind of a small pet project for us,” he said. “But it’s a growing brand, and it’s growing well.”
“Nashville can feel proud that there’s another local brand going into BNA,” Keegan added. “It was like, ‘Well, who’s local?’ And it’s us. So we’re really excited, and we take it seriously.”
