Nashville, Indiana is only a quick 35 minute drive from Bloomington. It’s a drive lined with colorful and vibrant fall leaves, but the beauty doesn’t end once you reach your destination. 

Every fall season, over a million tourists come to visit the small town of Nashville to enjoy shopping, carriage rides, train rides, horseback riding, restaurants and fall treats. It’s like walking into a fall wonderland, and that’s why tourists from all around the country flock to Indiana.  

“It’s very enjoyable here,” Paul Glass, a tourist visiting with his son, said. “I feel safe. I like the people and the festive mood. It’s almost like Oktoberfest in Germany. I am going to continue coming here as long as I live.”

Paul and his son, Mike, are annual visitors. It is loyal customers and tourists like the Glass’, that make the new owners of Caramel Corn Cottage feel lucky to be serving. 

“I like the fact that we are a constant,” Tammi Rispoli, co-owner of Caramel Corn Cottage, said “We are a constant to all the people that have been here. We weren’t here for 44 years, but the fact that the place has and the people come back.”

The fall season is Nashville’s busiest time of the year and this season is the first that Tammi and her sister, Corinne, have taken over the store after their dad, Jim, recently fell terminally ill and was no longer able to run the store. 

Jim was the owner of the store for 22 years, watching his daughters bring in their children to enjoy their grandpa’s treats. The store didn’t leave the children once they grew up either. Tammi’s daughter recently got engaged in the store, making Caramel Corn Cottage filled with memories, both within their own family and in the Nashville community. 

“I had a customer come in last week that was here for their 40th wedding anniversary and they came for their 20th,” Tammi said. “They loved my dad’s caramel apple so much that the husband asked her what she wanted for the 40th anniversary and she said the caramel apple we had on our 20th. They came in from Florida just for our caramel apple.”

This couple was not the first or the last to show love and support for the store that Jim put his whole heart into running. When the shop burned down two years ago, the community came together to build the cottage back up.  

“The whole town came together and did fundraisers and just were wonderful in supporting him and getting things back up and running,” Corrine said. “It’s a huge deal. It’s a great town.” 

Nashville holds a special place in Tammi, Corinne and Jim’s hearts, and while Tammi and Corinne are blessed to have this new opportunity, the situation in which it came has been tough on the family. 

“We are excited to be a part of this whole new community, but it’s a lot,” Corrine said, holding back tears. “We are learning.”

Jim leaves his daughters big shoes to fill in running the store, but his daughters believe that Jim is at home watching them thinking the job they have done so far has been, using his favorite phrase, “just fabulous”.