By Karen Parr-Moody
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – “Our menu is ‘Dare us!’” says Trish Butler, the owner of Nom Cupcake Café at 1681-C Fort Campbell Boulevard. “Our atmosphere is eclectic and so are the dad-gummed cupcakes.”
Butler’s menu – which she makes up anew every day – includes cupcakes in the flavors of peanut-butter-and-jelly, Oreo cookies, Cool Ranch Doritos, bacon-and-maple, cherry-whiskey and red velvet with a jalapeño-and-raspberry compote in the middle. The cupcakes sell for $2.50 each.
“We kept getting requests for off-the-wall stuff,” Butler says by way of explanation.
Lilac and seafoam green hairs mingle with the blonde strands of Butler’s ponytail as she stands among the cupcakes in the bright turquoise café. A three-time combat veteran as well as a mother of three children, the 31-year-old entrepreneur opened her store on July 21, fulfilling a childhood dream.
“I’ve always liked baking and cooking,” she says. “And from the time I was 13, I wanted to have a coffee shop.”
Butler says her “faith-based” business principals are “family, faith, community, cupcakes and Jesus.” She hopes the café will provide teens a wholesome place to hang out.
Butler concocts her cupcakes by jumping headfirst into the wide universe of available flavors. With her maple-and-bacon cupcake, for example, she uses bacon grease instead of vegetable oil and includes bits of real bacon in each cupcake.
“It’s a really great, savory cupcake,” she says.
For her Cool Ranch Doritos cupcake, Butler says she “deconstructed” the idea of a cupcake and included crunched-up Doritos in the buttercream frosting and batter.
“I know it sounds weird, but people like it,” she says.
In addition to cupcakes, Butler sells a $5 brown bag lunch. This includes a sandwich, chips, soda and cookie; the meat for sandwiches varies, but Butler tries to have a choice of chicken breast, turkey or ham.
“Everything I do is really homey,” she says.
Perhaps strangely – at least to most people on planet earth – Butler claims not to care if she makes a major profit.
“My goal is to do it for God,” she says. “I’m not trying to get big and crazy.”
Still, the mother of three – a 7-year-old daughter, a 6-year-old son and an infant boy – has a long-term goal.
“It would be great if my daughter, in 15 years, would have a Nom,” she says.
Nom’s hours are Thursday through Monday, 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., closed Tuesday and Wednesday. To place an order or learn more about Nom, call 817-908-0459.
The cupcakes sold at Nom Cupcake Café include flavors such as cherry-whiskey, Oreo cookie and red velvet with a jalapeño-and-raspberry compote in the middle. Photo by Karen Parr-Moody.
Karen Parr-Moody began a career as a New York journalist, working as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily, a beauty editor for Young Miss and a beauty and fashion writer for both In Style and People magazines. Regionally, she has been a writer at The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper and currently writes about arts and culture for Nashville Arts magazine each month.