NASHVILLE, Tenn. — When you step into VOLTA, it’s clear this isn’t a typical coffee stop.
The drinks don’t look familiar. The ingredients sound borderline scientific. The space itself feels part spaceship, part laboratory, part retro-futuristic dream. And according to founder John Fiorentino, that disorientation is intentional.
“When someone walks into the shop for the first time, the reaction is almost always the same — Whoa,” Fiorentino said. “When people walk in, I wanted them to feel that shift. We’re doing something with our drinks and products that’s never been done, so the design is intentionally a mix of things that you wouldn’t expect. It’s about creating a totally new experience you can’t find anywhere else”.
VOLTA, the bright orange café in the Wedgewood Houston area, has quickly built a loyal following in Nashville.
VOLTA is a new kind of cafe. They are officially “the worlds first energy cafe”, famous for their freshly made, super healthy, craft energy drinks, packed with vitamins and a new kind of caffeine. They are known to serve one of Nashvilles favorite Matcha’s, a mold free coffee, a giant protein cookie, and healthy foods like wraps and snacks.
Picture a healthier, elevated version of Dunkin’ Donuts, with medical-grade vitamins built into everything on the menu.
“The very simple translation in Latin is basically “to turn.” Fiorentino, who has Italian roots says the philosophical context comes down to transformation.
That meaning drives everything at VOLTA, from its design to its ingredients.
“Our formulas are built to support your body at a molecular level,” he adds. “Between our specific caffeine delivery and the supplements we use, we’re providing a foundation that transforms your energy, and ultimately, your entire day.”
Fiorentino’s fascination with drinks began long before VOLTA ever existed.
“My dream has always been to do something [regarding] drinks,” he said. “It goes all the way back to when I was ten years old, setting up lemonade stands and figuring out how it all worked.”
Over the years, that curiosity evolved into constant experimentation and reinvention.
“It’s just something I’ve done for myself every single day for as long as I can remember. I was always in the kitchen making these homemade mixtures, just playing around with different health ingredients and experimenting until I found something that actually worked.”
VOLTA is Fiorentino’s grown up lemonade stand that has left a huge impression in the Nashville area.
Despite what many might assume, Fiorentino doesn’t come from a traditional food, beverage, or mixology background.
“My background is very strange,” he said. “Actually, my first gig was was technically Justin Bieber’s intern,” he laughed.
Yes — that Justin Bieber.
His background includes music, restaurant ownership and he is also the founder of the Gravity Blanket.
Yes — that gravity blanket.
“My background is really all over the place.”
However through everything he has dabbled in, he has kept innovation, entrepreneurship and hustle at the forefront.
VOLTA’s menu is difficult to categorize and built that way on purpose.
It isn’t coffee. It isn’t tea. It isn’t juice. It’s a mix of that and so much more.
“The way we’ve built this, from the molecular chemistry and the ingredients to the actual flavor profiles, literally doesn’t exist anywhere else,” Fiorentino said. “And I say that with total confidence because I’ve traveled all over the world just to research and take notes on what’s out there. This is the result of that inspiration.”
He calls VOLTA a menu full of “alchemic mixtures.” From supplements such as colostrum to collagen, you have a wide variety of ways to enhance your drink.
The result is an experience that challenges customers’ expectations.
“The first time you taste VOLTA, it’s honestly a bit of a trip because your brain doesn’t immediately know how to categorize it,” Fiorentino said. “You’re experiencing something that literally hasn’t existed before, so your palate is trying to catch up to what’s actually happening.”
Beyond taste, Fiorentino says VOLTA was engineered to become part of customers’ everyday routines.
“I’ve designed the VOLTA menu and ingredients to essentially to be the perfect daily habit,” he said.
Central to that is VOLTA proprietary nutrient delivery system.
“The way we mix these liquid vitamins and caffeine into your drink is through a proprietary formula where everything is fresh, active, and encapsulated. The molecule delivering the nutrients is designed to absorb into your system way more effectively,” he said. “With standard pills and powders, your body is only catching about twenty percent of the nutrients. With what we
call the ‘VOLTA goo,’ our specialized formula basically gives you 10 times that absorption.”
The menu includes ingredients like Collagen, Colostrum, NAD+, and Creatine, which Fiorentino says can lead to noticeable changes over time.
“I actually just saw a comment on our Instagram from someone who had finished chemotherapy and was struggling with hair loss,” Fiorentino said. “They told us that after just a month of using the collagen, the regrowth was honestly shocking. Seeing that kind of impact is exactly why we do this.”
He also says many customers feel such a dramatic difference that they change their habits entirely.
“We’re seeing a huge number of people coming in for their third or fourth visit and telling us they’re quitting coffee,” he said. “They’re showing up literally every day because of how different and fresh this sustained kind of energy makes you feel. It just makes you feel alive in a completely different way.
Despite the science behind VOLTA, Fiorentino intentionally avoids overly marketing the health benefits.
“I’m not interested in just marketing health benefits or trying to ‘sell’ people on the science,” he said. “I’d rather just tell them to come in and experience this weird drink for themselves in the big orange building.”
Instead of persuading people to come by and visit VOLTA, he hopes customers discover the impact on their own.
More often than not he says people start to occasionally ask: “Why do I feel different, why do I feel better?”
Though Fiorentino has lived in Boston and New York — and still owns a restaurant in New York — Nashville was a deliberate choice for VOLTA’s launch.
“I feel like in Nashville and Tennessee in general, there’s a really great, genuine sort of spirit and soul here.”
He described the city as refreshingly honest and has seen many people come from all over the world to bring their big and innovative ideas here too.
“It seems like Nashville is one of the last places in the country that has sort of kept its soul intact and is a little bit like a no B.S. type of town,” Fiorentino said. “It just responds well to things that are authentic.”
One of the most surprising details about VOLTA’s current location: it’s temporary. The big orange building in the WeHo neighborhood will soon be torn down in just a couple of months.
VOLTA has been operating as a pop-up for quote sometime, but that was never the intention.
“No one would give me a lease,” he said.
When he explained his concept to commercial properties, many had never seen anything like it before and were skeptical to take that sort of chance on a new concept.
However, the tide has turned.
“We’re getting approached by a ton of real estate developers,” Fiorentino said. “Now all those guys are seeing it and are saying, ‘Oh, okay, I get it. It worked. People love it.’”
Rest assured, Fiorentino and his team are currently looking for a new, permanent home for VOLTA, and they have a lot of amazing areas to choose from.
VOLTA’s future includes mobility, expansion, and patience.
“I just bought three trailers that I’m going to scatter around Nashville, in Franklin and Brentwood,” Fiorentino said.
As for a physical café, Fio Companies (the team behind VOLTA) is looking at 12 South, the Gulch, Midtown and other Nashville hotspots.
Long term, his vision extends far beyond Tennessee.
“I want to go really, really big,” he said. “We’re looking in Florida, we’re looking in a bunch of different states around Tennessee.”
Still, he’s careful not to rush growth.
“I don’t want to grow it to a place where it’s going to break or compromise the ingredient or experience,” Fiorentino said. “We are growing intentionally, both fast and slow, with plans to take over the world, but doing it the right way.”
VOLTA isn’t Fiorentino’s first disruptive idea. Before energy drinks, he helped bring weighted blankets into the mainstream.
“I invented weighted blankets for the regular consumer,” he said. “The first company I did was called Gravity Blanket.”
Fiorentino’s bread and butter has always been bringing wellness and health by using fun, unique trends to make it happen.
For Nashville, VOLTA isn’t just another caffeine option. It’s an experience, one that feels different, tastes different, and, according to its growing fanbase, changes how you feel long after the cup is empty.
You can still visit their pop-up location at 514 Hagan Street and follow along with them on social media and website.
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