Chattanooga Coffee Company & Chattz Coffeehouse
Eileen Mason and Evelyn Wheeler, former partners in a custom tour business to the Middle East and Europe, joined forces in a new enterprise in 2002 by opening the Chattanooga Coffee Company and Chattz Coffeehouse.
Their goal was to bring the quality and ambiance of the great coffeehouses of Europe to Chattanooga, to offer quality coffee roasted in-house and to support downtown revitalization.
The partners created atmosphere in their 900-square-foot space at 1010 Market Street by removing the interior walls and resurrecting the intricate tray ceiling, decorative tile floor and handsome brick pillars. They acquired coffee roasting skills from an expert roast master who enjoyed a successful coffee venture on the West Coast.
Opening both a retail and wholesale business took tremendous effort. At the same time, Mason and Wheeler struggled to overcome the disappointment of having to abandon a successful tour business because of violence overseas.
Two years later Chattz Coffeehouse was nominated for the BBB Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics and received an Honorable Mention in the Small Business Category. The same year Minorities and Women in Business magazine spotlighted Chattz to illustrate Chattanooga’s spirit of entrepreneurism.
Chattz aficionados praise its tasty brews, professional service, friendly staff and pleasing atmosphere. In addition to its retail customers, the company services over 20 wholesale accounts, including The St. John’s Restaurant, CapitalMark Bank, Easy Seafood Restaurant and The Lodge at Buckberry Creek in Knoxville.
The company’s philanthropic beneficiaries include the Community Kitchen, Chattanooga Area Food Bank and Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library, among others.
