CHAMBER OF COMMERCE VETERAN-OWNED BUSINESS

Poppin’ In The City

CLARKSVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE VETERAN-OWNED BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT SPONSORED BY WATERDOGS SCUBA & SAFETY LLC

In March of 2022, the married duos of Amy and Terrilski Davis, and Alina and Jason Vannoy, opened Clarksville’s first brick and mortar popcorn shop, Poppin’ in the City. All four are veterans, and have been friends for over 20 years. They deployed and served together here at Fort Campbell in the early 2000s, so when the Davises returned to the Fort Campbell area recently after retirement, the friends joined up and got into business together. Their store offers 32 unique flavors of popcorn, and has become a hit at events around town.

VIP Clarksville spoke with Amy Davis, co-owner of the business and an Army veteran with 23 years of service under her belt. She explained that the reasons for returning to Clarksville were manifold. “We are close to family here. I’m originally from Minnesota, so 12 hours away, and my husband is from Georgia, so he’s eight hours away so this is kind of the middle point for us to kind of be close to family, so we decided on Clarksville. And we’re veterans, and Fort Campbell has a huge outreach with the military here, so that’s why we decided to return.” In addition, the Davis couple has a special needs son, who will be 20 this year, and Clarksville’s proximity to hospitals and care he needs was another benefit to returning. “He’s fully wheel-chair bound and has a G-tube. He was born at 26 weeks so he wasn’t supposed to live as long as he’s lived, and his enjoyment is music. TJ loves music,” Amy said. When they returned to the area, they also wanted to get into business for themselves. “Me and my husband were moving back to Clarksville, we knew we wanted this to be our retirement home and our spot. Some time ago, he’d heard on Clubhouse about another popcorn shop and he thought it would be a cool idea and that maybe we should bring popcorn to Clarksville,” Amy Davis told VIP Clarksville. And as for choosing the Vannoys to partner up with? “We knew that their experience and passion to serve people was in direct alignment with our vision for Poppin’ in the City,” Amy said.

Amy said that they started from the ground up, and decided against franchising. “I’ve got a master’s degree, my husband’s got a bachelor’s degree, so we said, ‘Why not, we can do it,’ so that’s how the plan came to life,” Amy continued. They decided on popcorn after realizing that the closest popcorn shop to Clarksville was 35 minutes away in Dickson, but Nashville had several. “We realized that popcorn is a comfort food for people. You have all these other chains in Clarksville, we’ve got burger joints, we have ice cream, we have pizza but we don’t have popcorn.” So Amy said they started reaching out to some people, and they found a mentor in Texas who’d been in the popcorn business for 35 years that provided invaluable advice. She said that her background in food service within the military also proved valuable. “I joined the military back in 1998, and I’ve been in the food industry since I was 14 years old. I was a waitress and a busser,” Amy said. “So when I joined the military, I realized I could continue doing food service. My mom taught me how to cook, I come from a German background, so I was like why not? I was in 23 years and retired as a sergeant major. I’ve done five deployments, and then I went into the enlisted aide program,” Amy said. She said through the food service department of the military, and then being an aide, she was able

to continue doing what she was passionate about while also teaching others. “I’ve worked with the Afghan people, and we worked with the locals to help them with their food service programs.”

In the next year, Amy said that exciting things are coming. “We’re looking at forming partnerships with some people, we’ve had some investors knock on the door to put them in different locations across the United States,” Amy told VIP. They’re also opening a location on Fort Campbell soon at the Exchange, and potentially opening a second location in Clarksville although Amy said details have yet to be finalized. “It’s all just really exciting and we love this community.”

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NMLS# Direct Line 630557 (931) 920-6517 Email gfielder@altra.org Branch Location 1600 Madison St. | Clarksville, TN

1600 Madison Street 2625 Wilma Rudolph Blvd. Clarksville, TN 931-552-3363 • 800-755-0055 www.altra.org #STRONGERTOGETHER

620 Dunlop Lane, Suite 119 Across from Tennova. We are a Veteran Owned & Operated local business. S Michael Licari, Walt Lord & Doug Englenerving fresh food and the best atmosphere for you and your family.

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