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For hours on a Saturday morning, Demi Chacon and Davy Ball dart behind an elongated bar like dancing pinballs as Radiohead and David Bazen on vinyl croon overhead. The couple are serving slow pours of coffee for a seemingly never-ending queue of patrons. The counter remains full. Ten sit at the bar while at least half a dozen more eager patrons wait to slip into the next open barstool—and they’ll continue to wait if they must.
The walnut bar—custom outfitted for chef Sean Brock’s building by actor Nick Offerman—is graced with 10 handmade Japanese sashiko placemats, gold stirring spoons, and freshly printed menus. Lush pothos climb the tall white walls, draping over large picture windows. A shelf of records lives in the built-in bar.
From its inception in 2021, Now and Then has set out to redefine coffee as a culinary experience instead of merely a conveyance for caffeine. The concept is technically in its third space in four years, and owners Chacon and Ball now have their sights set on its fourth and biggest yet. “We looked at wine bars for inspiration,” Chacon says. “Coffee has historically been undervalued. To keep it in the future, we need to appreciate it.”
The menu is stacked with a rotating selection of about 10 rare, hard-to-source coffee beans processed in labs and roasteries globally, each of which can be served as a filter shot, pour-over, or emulsifying filtered coffee in a shaker with ice until it’s frothy, served in a coupe. Now and Then only seats 10, offers no takeout, and no cold brew. There’s one latte and one $10 mocha made with single-origin chocolate—though Chacon will insist patrons save these indulgences for last since milk will coat their palate and change how they might experience other drinks.
Like the sommeliers they draw inspiration from, Chacon and Ball will ask customers what they like about coffee and what they dislike. There’s no expertise necessary, nor pretentiousness.
“We looked at the typical café model and questioned all of it,” says Chacon, who started as a barista at a Florida Starbucks in the 2010s. “Once you’re familiar with the rules, it’s okay to break them.” (Similarly, Ball has been in the industry for about 15 years.)
Once a guest selects their coffee, Ball grinds it, then hands the grounds over in a metal tin so the guest can smell them before extraction. Fresh Colombian pink bourbon grounds smell like stone fruit and citrus. Once the pour is ready—which can sometimes take nearly 10 minutes per person based on the preparation and extraction process—visitors are encouraged to take their time during the tasting experience, to note how the flavor develops as the drink’s temperature changes.
Coffees available range in price from around $8 to $50 per pour and change daily based on what’s in the mini freezer, where Chacon and Ball dose beans at their peak post-roasting status (three weeks according to the couple) into one-way valve test tubes to store for months, or in some cases, years. A peek inside reveals dozens of scientific vials carrying a washed Chinese bean roasted in the Netherlands, or a Panama-based bean processed in France.
The pair is giddy about an experimental batch they’ve received from POMA, a coffee research and roasting lab based in Copenhagen focused on environmental and industry sustainability. The lab only produces 20 pounds of coffee all year. After someone connected to the lab heard about Now and Then and visited, they sent a kit containing POMA’s latest experiment: Pacamara Variation 1 and Variation 2, which manipulated coffee plants in a greenhouse to mimic environmental conditions. Pours are $40 each; Variation 1 tastes more delicate and floral, perfumed with notes of orange blossom while No. 2 develops a more complex and high-acidity, punchy flavor of jasmine and plum.
Chacon and Ball—who got engaged last year—met in 2019 while working in a Tampa coffee shop. They would go on to work in several cafés together, helping new spots open and participating in competitive barista throw downs. By 2021, the concept of Now and Then was born, though not nearly as refined. At the time, they’d bring in one exciting coffee for a weekend each month—usually selling out before making it to Sunday.
“When we first pitched this to our friends in Florida, all of them thought we were insane,” Chacon said, “and that we’d never get anyone to pay more than $5 for a cup of coffee.” When the couple moved to Nashville, they met with Brock by chance, bonding over Leica cameras.
“You know that if they have a Leica, they care about the same small details and craftsmanship as you,” Brock said. “I saw them eating pizza at a table beside me and made a remark about the Leica. Once they started explaining their vision for how people would experience Now and Then, I knew we were cut from the same cloth.”
Now and Then initially set up shop at Brock’s now closed Bar Continental inside the Grand Hyatt Nashville, using Brock’s elaborate audio setup and serving irresistibly fluffy milk bread. The format was a nod to Japanese jazz kissa bars, dedicated listening lounges serving up tea or alcohol.
As the trio grew closer, the pop-up morphed into a proper residency. The three would team up for other collaborations, like a Mother’s Day brunch featuring Now and Then’s coffee service.
When Brock left the Hyatt, he brought Now and Then into his 809 Meridian St. building, renting out the bar space upstairs from Audrey and across the hall from his other restaurant, June, to Chacon and Ball. (Now and Then’s space also hosts Bar Audrey, a Monday-only pop-up where Brock runs community vinyl nights and serves up cheeseburgers.)
“Their passion for perfection inspires me the most,” Brock says. “We need more people who aren’t scared to take chances and question traditions.”
Flocks of fans followed. Now and Then has established a rapport with regulars, celebrities (including the pop band, Plain White T’s, which documented their visit on TikTok), and out-of-state enthusiasts who make the trip for the experience.
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But it’s not all beanheads and baristas. Chacon and Ball set out to meet every patron at their level and to expand their horizons.
Over a year into Now and Then’s Nashville iteration, and armed with a devoted band of followers, the couple is looking to grow once again. They’ve signed a lease for a brick-and-mortar space, about a mile down the road but much, much larger.
Ball says the goal is to expand to a coffee omakase experience and tea service with wagashi treats between courses by day, and a wine bar by night. Dining in will still be required, but they’ll offer a to-go window with a separate menu for the take-out crowd.
“Imagine eating milk bread, drinking coffee, and listening to Black Sabbath on vinyl,” Ball says, grinning, before starting his next pour. “It sounds f*#%ing sick.”