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Most business owners wouldn't be interested in going through a complete rebrand after being open for just four monthsespecially after spending the hard costs of printing menus, napkins, and business cards. But when Staci Bockman was approached by a major company and told to stop using the original name of her brand new Germantown chocolate shop, Tempur, she took it as an opportunity.
'We'd already been considering a way to expand our offerings, so we just said, ‘Why not do it all at once?'” she explains.
And so Tempur relaunched as Tempered European Indulgence in late April, bringing with it a few tweaks to the space as well as a heartier menu. Now, in addition to the broad selection of housemade truffles and cheese boards, diners can find items like Belgian waffles, pastries, and baguette sandwiches on the all-day menu.
'We wanted to give people the option to eat something other than chocolate first thing in the morning,” Bockman says with a smile.
As its new name suggests, the shop provides a taste of Europe in the heart of Tennesseefrom the A.O.C.-designated cheese that she's importing from France to chef Chelsea Gunn, who attended Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.
'If you've been to a little corner of Europe, hopefully this will remind you of thatand if you haven't, it'll give you a taste of what you're missing,” Bockman says.
And while Tempered still invites guests to pair wine with chocolate, cheese, and charcuterie boards, they also wanted to satisfy a request put in by a few male visitors; there's now a selection of high-gravity beer and a few bourbons in the lineup, too.
With wi-fi and a fenced-in patio, it should be considered an all-day retreat. Just don't coming looking for espresso drinks, since other cafés, like across-the-street neighbor The Red Bicycle coffee shop, already have a lock on those. Instead, consider a frozen hot chocolate, which is made with the same filling that they use to make their truffles. 'It's essentially like drinking a liquid dessert,” Bockman says.
1201 5th Ave. N., 615-454-5432; temperednashville.com