(All photos by Vicki Lindsey)
Our friends and family reside all across the country, so we travel a lot. Visiting old and new places is something both Ben and I enjoy and share a passion for, so I thought it would be appropriate to add a category for "Travel" on the blog. This will be a section where I share with you highlights of our adventures, featuring our favorite places to sleep, dine, play and shop!
Today I'm starting the Travel series in one of our favorite cities, Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville is like a second home to me, since I spent three years there for college and one additional year for work. It was very hard for me to move away from a city that taught me so much, so I've made countless trips back. Soon after Ben's first visit with me, he grew to love it, too. Even though it's been nine years since I've lived in Nashville, pieces of my heart still remain.
Nashville may have been built and known for its music and songwriting scene, but it is also popular for its eclectic food options, museums, parks, and vibrant artistic community. There are several unique neighborhoods within the Nashville limits, and I plan to explore more of them during each visit. Some neighborhoods I'm already familiar with, while others are new or revamped since I left. Either way, there are tons of great places to eat and my plan is to share my favorites with you!
Last month, the three of us drove the 6-7 hours trip to Nashville to visit my best friend and her family so she could snatch some family photos for us. While we were there, I was craving cupcakes. After lunching at Music City Flats (food was okay, wasn't extremely impressed) in The Gulch neighborhood, I did a quick Internet search for a cupcake bakery in town. After reading reviews, we decided on The Cupcake Collection.
The Cupcake Collection is a family-run business located in historic Germantown. Up until just about a month or two ago, the bakery was run in the same home that the family lived. Because of the bakery's success, the family was able to move to another home allowing the space to be dedicated to the shop.
We had the privilege of meeting the husband, A.E. François, (pictured above) of the family, who gave us an in-depth story of the bakery's very inspiring success story, including saving their house at the last minute with a payment from the bakery's sudden success. You can read about some of their back-story here. He even told us that he and his wife are the only ones at the bakery who know the cupcake recipes. They are up very early every morning mixing and baking, and now they close their doors at 4:00PM because they value their family time. Much respect to you, François family!!
We arrived fairly late in the day since we had a late lunch and took a few more family photos before entering the shop. Because of this, a few of the flavors we were going to choose were gone by the time we reached the counter. I was really looking forward to trying the Sweet Lemonade Cupcake, but a customer just two ahead of me took the last one. Bummer! But, hey, that's what we get for showing up late so I'm not at all blaming the bakery. 🙂
The flavors we did get to try were: Chocolate, Wedding Cake, Red Velvet, Snickerdoodle and Vanilla. All were great, but my favorite was the Wedding Cake. That is super unusual for me, as I'm a chocolate cake kinda gal. 😉 It was moist, flavorful and perfectly delicious.
One of the best parts of The Cupcake Collection is the price. Most bakeries price each cupcake sky high at at least $3.50 per cupcake! Not so at The Cupcake Collection. They keep it very reasonable at $1.50 per cupcake! Score! Additionally, the service was excellent and cheerful, despite the long lines (which is a good sign in my opinion).
Nashville celebrities frequent The Cupcake Collection. Mr. François told us that they often arrange special after-hour times for certain stars when requested. Very cool! Otherwise, by the end of the day there are pretty much no cupcakes left.
Although I didn't snatch any photos of the actual cupcakes (what the heck!) I might as well let you see some of the family photos we took while we were there. The bakery's purple painted brick was a perfect back-drop!
Make sure you stop by The Cupcake Collection and satisfy your sweet tooth the next time you're in Nashville! You can find more of my favorite places to visit in Nashville by following my Nashville Pinterest board. Do you have any favorite places in Nashville you think I should check out?
The Cupcake Collection
1213 6th Avenue N.
Nashville, TN 37208
