Be Caffeinated started as a drive-thru, a quick stop on many Chattanoogans’ morning commutes. It has since grown into a community stalwart, and there’s more brewing.
Owner Christopher Wood got the idea for a drive-thru coffee shop while working in fast food during college. At the time, the concept was still fairly novel; some bigger chains were adding drive-thrus, but few smaller, independent brands were. Wood and his business partner, Doug Lee, saw an opening in Chattanooga, and the first Be Caffeinated drive-thru opened on Dayton Boulevard in 2019.
The business grew quickly, and new opportunities soon followed. In March 2020, the second Be Caffeinated location opened at Chattanooga State Community College, days before the COVID-19 pandemic upended daily life. That November, the company expanded to Northshore with a shop on Kent Street, in a building that was a natural fit for a combined café and drive-thru. Two more locations have opened since: Highland Park in 2022, and a Rossville Boulevard shop in 2024, the company’s first in Georgia.
It’s not just the cafés and drive-thrus that are growing. In 2021, they launched New Wave Coffee Roasters, a sister company originally housed in the Northshore location. The roaster has since taken off in its own right and is opening its own space this fall: a slow bar with a sit-down space built around pour-overs and French presses, where New Wave can experiment with microlots and limited-release coffees, and celebrate coffee as an art form.
As Be Caffeinated expanded, the local partners supplying baked goods couldn’t keep up, and keeping every location stocked was getting harder. The solution was a return to Wood’s bakery roots: his family once owned a bagel shop in Mississippi. The TVFCU Idea Leap grant provided the seed money to launch Morning Bee Bakery. This spring, Morning Bee opened its own space, with an extended menu that includes hearty bagel sandwiches and decadent cinnamon rolls that quickly became local favorites.
Be Caffeinated has built its reputation on the same thing: great coffee, great food, and showing up for the community. The team regularly collaborates with other local businesses, and it shows up around town with pop-ups simply to be part of what’s happening in the city.
“Chattanooga is a really big pie, and we can all get a bite of it,” says Nate Tucker, Be Caffeinated’s marketing manager. “The best way to do that is by working together.”
That philosophy drives the company’s Give Back program, which partners with a new nonprofit each month through profit sharing or special events. The partners are typically small organizations, often run by just one person or a handful, where a few hundred dollars a month can make a real impact. These are the people out doing the work on the ground, and for some of them, that support can determine whether they’re still operating next month.
On the second Friday of each month, Be Caffeinated also hosts Coffee Break, a free gathering with free coffee and pastries where the community can come together and hear from one another. The event rotates between locations and features new speakers and partners each time, from artists and musicians to local nonprofits.
Underneath it all is a simple goal: to make people’s days better. For many customers, a stop at Be Caffeinated is the best part of their day, and the team doesn’t take that lightly. Being part of people’s daily routines is a privilege, and whether customers are walking out of a café or pulling away from a drive-thru window, the hope is that they leave happy.