The Café at Thistle Farms

Thistle Farms was founded in Nashville by Becca Stevens as a residential and employment programme for women survivors of trafficking, prostitution and addiction, and the cafe on its Charlotte Avenue campus is one of the social enterprises that funds and staffs that work. The women who make the coffee, run the floor and serve the tea are programme participants and graduates. That is stated plainly by the organisation itself: it describes the cafe as a nonprofit social enterprise helping heal, restore and employ women survivors of trafficking, prostitution and addiction. For a directory used substantially by people in recovery, this is worth knowing before you arrive rather than after - it is not a marketing line attached to an ordinary coffee shop.

No alcohol is served. The kitchen does locally sourced breakfast and lunch, and the thing that makes the room a destination is the seated tea service, which runs Monday to Saturday from 1pm to 3pm by reservation with at least 48 hours' notice, at $30 a head. It comes as a steeped pot with a china teacup - the cups are donated, sent in by supporters and Thistle Farms graduates from around the world, and a chandelier of them hangs in the room - plus six chef's-choice savoury and sweet bites on a tiered tray. Quiche, a demi salad or a cup of soup can be added. The organisation's own framing of the ritual is that chado is about more than preparing tea; it is about serving and sharing it from a deep place of love and intention.

The loose-leaf list is genuinely worth ordering from rather than defaulting to coffee: black teas include Earl Grey Lavender and Casablanca Twist with sweet peppermint; the greens include Cha Cha, jasmine and peppermint, and a pomegranate raspberry; the caffeine-free herbals include pure moringa, Honeybush Vanilla and a house blend called Communi-Tea made with moringa, hibiscus and orange peel. There is a Masala Chai, and the espresso bar's best-known drink is a lavender honey latte. One practical note: the cafe closes at 3pm and is shut on Sundays, so this is a daytime venue - the shop next door is worth the extra half hour.