One of Nashville’s best-known specialty coffee businesses is now in bankruptcy court. Barista Parlor LLC filed for Chapter 11 protection on October 21, 2026, months after the company closed three cafés around the city.
The filing adds another Nashville name to Tennessee’s growing list of restaurant bankruptcies. It does not mean that every Barista Parlor location has shut down. Two related businesses entered bankruptcy separately on the same day.
Three related companies file for protection
Barista Parlor LLC, Barista Parlor Holdings LLC and Barista Parlor Roasting LLC filed separate voluntary Chapter 11 cases in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. Each selected Subchapter V, a restructuring process designed for qualifying small businesses.
Barista Parlor LLC’s case is numbered 26-05105. Its affiliated companies have case numbers 26-05106 and 26-05107. The businesses requested joint administration, and an October 22 court order scheduled an October 28 hearing on that request and other initial motions. Joint administration has not yet been established by that scheduling order.
Public case summaries put Barista Parlor LLC’s estimated liabilities between $1 million and $10 million, compared with less than $100,000 in estimated assets. Those are figures for that legal entity, not a consolidated balance sheet for every business associated with the coffee brand.
Chapter 11 can give a business time to reorganize its obligations while operating under court supervision. The filing is not a Chapter 7 liquidation, and no confirmed reorganization plan or sale has emerged from the newly opened cases.
Three Nashville cafés closed earlier this year
Barista Parlor began in East Nashville in 2012 and grew into a recognizable name in the city’s specialty coffee scene. Its smaller footprint predates this week’s bankruptcy filings.
In January, founder Andy Mumma said the company would close its Germantown, Sylvan Supply and Hillsboro Village cafés. Those locations subsequently shut after the announced January 11 final-service date. Mumma told the Nashville Scene that rising rents, insurance, taxes, wages and coffee costs had squeezed the business.
He said rent at the Germantown shop had more than doubled and that an average customer ticket of roughly $9 could no longer support the expenses. At the time, Mumma estimated the closures would affect about 15 employees; an independently confirmed final layoff count was not available.
What happens to the remaining coffee shops?
In January, Mumma identified the original East Nashville café, the W Nashville hotel outpost and the Nashville International Airport counter as locations the company intended to retain. He also described plans to refresh the East Nashville shop with a simpler menu focused on hand-brewed coffee.
The airport’s current dining directory still lists Barista Parlor at Gate C22, and the brand’s online store continues to offer coffee. Those listings do not establish the operating status of every café or the outcome of the East Nashville renovation.
For customers, the distinction matters: the three earlier closures are real, but the new bankruptcy filings do not announce another round of shutdowns. The court proceedings will help determine what comes next for the Nashville-born coffee business.
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