Just Love Coffee

A specialty coffeehouse franchise, all-day café and community gathering place

Just Love Coffee & Café is a specialty coffee and café franchise built around a simple idea: create a place people genuinely enjoy coming to—whether they are grabbing their morning coffee, meeting a friend for breakfast, working on a laptop, enjoying lunch, or simply looking for a welcoming place to spend time in their community.

Founded in 2009 in Tennessee, Just Love began with a purpose-driven mission connected to helping families raise money for adoption. The concept has since evolved into a growing coffee-and-food franchise while maintaining its emphasis on community, hospitality and giving back. The company began franchising in 2014.

What makes Just Love particularly interesting is that it is not simply another coffee shop. The concept combines specialty coffee and handcrafted beverages with an all-day food menu, allowing franchisees to generate revenue beyond the traditional morning coffee rush.

A Coffee Franchise With a Food Component

Coffee is at the heart of the Just Love concept, with specialty coffees and beverages roasted and developed around the brand's coffee program. But the menu goes considerably further than coffee and pastries.

Just Love offers breakfast, lunch and snack options, including its distinctive waffle-based menu, sandwiches, wraps, baked goods, desserts and other café fare. The brand's food preparation model is intentionally streamlined, with many hot menu items prepared using waffle irons rather than relying on a traditional full-service commercial kitchen.

That approach is designed to accomplish two things:

First, it creates additional revenue opportunities throughout the day.

A traditional coffee shop can be heavily dependent on the morning daypart. Just Love's all-day menu is designed to give customers a reason to visit for breakfast, lunch, an afternoon snack or an evening treat.

Second, it simplifies the physical operation.

The concept does not require the same type of large commercial kitchen infrastructure found in many traditional restaurants. The franchisor says its smaller footprint and simplified kitchen requirements can reduce build-out complexity and allow the café to operate with a relatively streamlined staff.

The Just Love Difference

The brand's positioning centers around three primary components:

Specialty Coffee

Just Love emphasizes carefully roasted specialty coffee and a broad selection of coffee and specialty beverages.

Food & All-Day Dining

The menu extends well beyond coffee, with waffles, breakfast items, sandwiches, wraps, baked goods, desserts and other café offerings.

Community

The company places significant emphasis on creating a welcoming neighborhood gathering place and giving back to the communities where its cafés operate.

The result is intended to feel more like a local café with a strong personality and purpose than a traditional large national coffee chain.

Multiple Revenue Opportunities

One of the more interesting aspects of the Just Love model is its potential to capture multiple customer occasions.

Customers can visit for:

Morning coffee

Breakfast

Specialty beverages

Lunch

Afternoon coffee or snacks

Desserts

Meetings and social gatherings

Working remotely

Catering and group orders

The franchisor also identifies catering as an additional potential revenue stream.

This diversified approach is important because the business isn't dependent entirely on selling cups of coffee during a relatively narrow portion of the day.

A Relatively Streamlined Restaurant Model

Just Love was intentionally designed around operational simplicity.

The café does not require a traditional full-scale restaurant kitchen, and many of the food items can be prepared using relatively simple equipment. The franchisor also emphasizes a smaller footprint and a streamlined operating model.

Historically, the company has described the concept as requiring approximately 5–6 employees at launch, although actual staffing requirements will vary significantly based on location, hours, sales volume and operating model.

For an entrepreneur who likes the restaurant industry but doesn't necessarily want to take on the complexity of a traditional full-service restaurant, this is an important part of the model to investigate.

Real Estate

Just Love cafés can operate in different types of locations, including freestanding sites and end-cap locations in shopping centers. The franchisor has historically emphasized flexibility in site selection and a relatively compact footprint.

The company provides assistance with:

Market analysis

Site selection

Real-estate evaluation

Lease negotiations

Site approval

Design

Construction

Contractor recommendations

Build-out oversight

The current franchise process specifically describes real-estate, design and construction support as part of the development process.

Training & Support

Just Love provides training intended to take someone without previous coffee or restaurant experience through the major components of operating the business.

Support can include:

Initial Training

Franchisees receive hands-on training covering coffee preparation, beverages, food preparation, equipment, sales processes, staffing and day-to-day operations. The franchisor currently describes approximately three weeks of operator training in its franchise process, while its detailed training materials describe a combination of hands-on and remote training.

Site Selection & Development

The franchisor assists with identifying and approving locations, lease negotiations, design and construction.

Pre-Opening Support

Just Love provides assistance with hiring, opening preparation and operational readiness.

Grand Opening Support

An opening team is deployed to help train staff and support the launch of the new café.

Ongoing Support

Support includes operations, marketing, training and business guidance following the opening.

The franchisor's current development process describes ongoing operations coaching, local marketing support and a field team that works with franchisees after opening.

Who Is Just Love Looking For?

Just Love is particularly suited to an entrepreneur who wants to be actively involved in a customer-facing, community-oriented business.

Brand & Community Mission

Purpose is an important component of the Just Love identity.

The business originated in 2009 as an online coffee company created to help families raise money for adoption. That mission eventually evolved into physical cafés while maintaining the broader concept of using the business to positively impact local communities.

The company describes its cafés as community gathering places rather than simply transactional coffee shops.

That positioning can be particularly relevant for an owner who wants to build relationships with customers, local businesses, schools, nonprofits and community organizations.

Growth Opportunity

The franchise system has expanded beyond its original Tennessee market into multiple states.

Public information associated with the 2025 FDD reports 53 total outlets, including 51 franchised and 2 company-owned locations, while the franchisor's current website is actively marketing territories throughout more than 30 states.

The brand is therefore beyond the experimental startup stage, but it remains considerably smaller than the major national coffee chains.

For a franchise buyer, that creates an interesting combination: a concept with an established operating model and existing franchise network, but without the enormous system size of brands such as Starbucks, Dunkin' or Scooter's Coffee.

Multi-Unit Potential

Just Love also presents an opportunity for entrepreneurs who ultimately want to build a larger portfolio.

The franchisor's current materials specifically state that it is interested in franchisees who are interested in multi-unit ownership and expanding across a dedicated territory.

For the right operator, the first café can therefore serve as the foundation for a larger local or regional business.

This is particularly relevant for someone who enjoys building teams, developing managers and eventually moving from being the person who runs the store to the person who runs the organization.

What Makes the Concept Interesting?

There are several characteristics that make Just Love worth investigating for someone considering a coffee franchise:

1. It isn't dependent exclusively on coffee.

The all-day food menu gives the business additional customer occasions and revenue opportunities.

2. The food operation is intentionally simplified.

The waffle-based preparation model reduces the need for a traditional large commercial kitchen.

3. The brand has a differentiated identity.

The community and giving-back component creates a positioning that is different from simply competing on coffee.

4. It is a relatively established franchise system.

The company has been franchising since 2014 and has developed a multi-state network.

5. There is an Item 19 disclosure.

The 2025 FDD provides reported gross-sales information from qualifying locations, giving prospective franchisees something concrete to investigate during validation.

6. There is substantial territory availability.

The current franchisor website lists opportunities across a large number of states.

7. It can appeal to first-time franchise owners.

No previous restaurant or coffee experience is required, although leadership and active ownership are important.

What a Prospective Franchisee Should Investigate

As with any franchise investment, the marketing story is only the beginning of the diligence process.

A prospective Just Love franchisee should pay particular attention to:

The current FDD Item 7 investment range

Actual build-out costs from recently opened cafés

Item 19 revenue by store age

Store-level profitability

Labor percentage

Food and beverage cost

Occupancy percentage

Average ticket

Customer frequency

Morning versus afternoon/evening sales

Catering revenue

Drive-through versus non-drive-through economics

Franchisee satisfaction

Franchisee turnover and closures

Territory protections

Required remodels

Technology requirements

Local advertising requirements

Vendor restrictions

Actual opening timeline

Availability of desirable real estate in the target market

Most importantly, prospective franchisees should speak with a meaningful number of existing owners—not just the franchisees the franchisor recommends—and ask detailed questions about both the economics and the day-to-day ownership experience.