A new chapter for Mama's Java and MJ Roasting.
BuildABLE Academy and BuildABLE Beans are acquiring Nolensville's café and its coffee roasting business. We're keeping the café and coffee this town loves, and opening the doors wider for neurodivergent people who want to learn, work and belong.
What stays the same
The place and the menu
Same home on Sheldon Valley Drive. Same Mama's Java favorites, made to order just the way you like them, with breakfast and lunch served all day by people who know your name.
The coffee and the neighbors
Your coffee is still air-roasted right here in Nolensville, using the same recipes. Mama's Java will keep showing up for this town too, alongside Maverick Café, The Broody Hen, Their World Collective, Art Helps Cancer and the many other partners we're proud to work with.
What Mark and Melissa built
Mama's Java Café has been a Nolensville gathering place since 2010. Owners Mark and Melissa Hall moved to town from Seattle in 2004 and couldn't find coffee that matched what they'd left behind, so they started roasting their own. Tom, Mark and Skyler roast and flavor the coffee. Every batch is air-roasted in-house, behind glass, floating the beans on a bed of hot air instead of tumbling them in a drum, which makes for a cleaner, smoother cup. The café serves made-to-order breakfast and lunch all day and offers more than 40 flavored coffees alongside single origins and blends. Its wholesale arm, MJ Roasting Company, ships coffee as far as the U.S. Virgin Islands and runs a subscription for customers who've moved away.
Thank you, Mark & Melissa
You built more than a coffee shop. You built a gathering place, a roasting craft and a habit of giving back. Thank you for trusting us with what comes next. We'll take care of it, and of the people who make it what it is.
Why this fit
Mama's Java was already doing this work.
For years, Mama's Java has donated the coffee sold at Maverick Café, the in-school café at Mill Creek Middle run by general education students and students with disabilities, side by side. That's the heart of BuildABLE: real work, real skills and a real place at the table for neurodivergent people. We're not changing what Mama's Java stands for. We're building on it.
Two businesses, two roles
BuildABLE Beans will own and operate Mama's Java Café and MJ Roasting; BuildABLE Academy will run training there. BuildABLE Academy and BuildABLE Beans are acquiring Mama's Java and MJ Roasting to carry forward the community the Halls spent sixteen years building. Mama's Java has always been more than a coffee shop. Neighbors meet there, local events find a home there, and the café has consistently given back to the community around it. That spirit is at the heart of BuildABLE's work. BuildABLE Beans will keep MJ Roasting's air-roasted coffee in Nolensville and grow it as a social enterprise. BuildABLE Academy will make the café a place where neurodivergent trainees gain real skills, real jobs and a real place in the community. The coffee and the welcome stay the same; the door just opens a little wider.
BuildABLE Beans · Not Your Typical Coffee
Takes on MJ Roasting
The air roaster, the recipes, the wholesale accounts and the coffee subscriptions. Same roasting method, same beans, roasted in Nolensville, now as part of a social-enterprise coffee company. We'll keep shipping across the U.S. and to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
BuildABLE Academy
Brings training to Mama's Java
The café becomes a hands-on learning site where neurodivergent trainees build kitchen, barista, roasting and customer-service skills, working alongside the team you already know.
Why BuildABLE Academy
Skilled-trades careers, built for neurodivergent minds.
BuildABLE Academy empowers neurodivergent individuals through skilled trades training, education and innovative employment pathways. We started in Nashville, and we're built as a profit-for-purpose business so the work can grow and last.
Learn more at buildableacademy.comQuestions we're already hearing
Is Mama's Java closing?
No. The café stays open through the transition, at the same location, serving the same coffee.
What about Mark and Melissa?
Mark and Melissa built something special and have trusted us to carry it forward. We'll share more about their role in the coming weeks.
Will I see trainees working at the café?
Over time, yes. BuildABLE Academy trainees will learn alongside the café team, with coaching and support built in. You'll be part of their first real job, and that matters more than you might think.
Will the people I know still be there?
Yes. The current team stays, and trainees learn alongside them.
How can I get involved?
Families, trainees, employers and partners can reach us at support@buildableacademy.com or visit buildableacademy.com.