Featured photo from Kate Weiser Chocolate Website
Receiving and eating chocolate is indeed the “elixir of the gods” and has been a most-appreciated gift throughout history. DFW’s amazing chocolatiers are producing some of the best handcrafted chocolates in the whole United States.
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Bonus Fun Stuff:Taverna Rossa Southlake Tops the Pub Fare Food Chain.
You don’t need to wait for a special occasion to gift a loved one or to indulge in the delicious confections yourself. With the many variations in the uses of chocolate nowadays, you can enjoy it on a regular basis and feel like you are having an extraordinary and passionate experience each time.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area is fortunate to have fantastic chocolate destinations, and here are just a few of them.
1. Kate Weiser Chocolate
We were asked 2 B in the #kidschoiceawards2016 swag bag!Imagine @Adele sayin “do I peel off the bottom?” #dallaseats pic.twitter.com/yrBGC2C7HH
— Kate Weiser (@KateWeiserChoc) March 13, 2016
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Kate Weiser Chocolate is in Trinity Groves, which is a retail, restaurant, entertainment and artist destination located in West Dallas at the base of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. Kate considers chocolate to be the most rewarding and challenging medium in the culinary arts field, and she loves to come up with new techniques and exciting shapes, textures, and flavors in her hand-painted and artistic chocolate collections.
Kate’s background includes graduating from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and working at restaurants such as Kansas City’s four-star restaurant, Bluestem, where she learned how to take familiar desserts and make them into ones that were modern and new. She was also an Executive Pastry Chef at Nobu.
2. Dude, Sweet Chocolate
Photo Credit: Dude Sweet Chocolate: http://dudesweetchocolate.com/about/photos/
Chef Katherine Clapner had more than 20 years’ experience as a pastry chef after obtaining an associate’s degree in baking and pastry at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. She is the co-founder, co-owner, and Chef of Dude, Sweet that concocts, manufactures, retails and distributes inspired creations made of dark chocolate. You can enjoy a variety of fantastic truffles, fudges, artisan chocolates, toffees, and anything else different and delicious that this fine chef comes up with!
3. CocoAndre Chocolatier
I’ll just leave this here. In case you don’t know where to go for flowers,chocolates and balloons. pic.twitter.com/MlRmO5Hml4
— CocoAndréChocolatier (@CocoAndre) February 13, 2016
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Andrea Pedraza, her daughter Cindy, and the staff lovingly create pure chocolate hand-crafted confections with an old-world charm for customers throughout the Dallas area and across America.
Imagine such outstanding mouth-watering offerings such as a European-style Truffle and Love Box, Gift Baskets, Raspberry Lavender and other varieties of Truffles, and even Chocolate High-Heel Shoes and Cowboy Boots!
4. Sublime Chocolate
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This chocolate and coffee shop, using the slogan “Inspiration through chocolate”, handcrafts all types of high-quality decorated bonbons and truffles, bean to bar chocolate, chocolates in elegant gold gift boxes, ice cream, and coffee drinks. Even the drinking chocolate is thick and creamy. Chocolate enthusiasts will appreciate the sample of decadent European-style sipping chocolate and the eye and taste-bud appeal of the perfectly filled chocolates that are made in-house and are like small works of heavenly art.
5. Isabelly’s Chocolates and Sweet Treats
The Richardson Living Magazine in 2016 awarded Isabelly’s “Richardson’s Best Kept Secret” and “Best Dessert in Richardson.“ The Dallas Observer called the award-winning cake balls “Best in Dallas” in 2014.
Here you will find a unique combination of a wide assortment of quality chocolates together with melt-in-your-mouth French macaroons, bonbons, truffles, toffees, cake balls, other confections, sweet treat gifts, and small batch ice cream. They are all handmade right in their shop.
Dallas Chocolate Festival
Last year we covered the Dallas Chocolate Festival in Addison, a taste-bud tempting event that kind of blew my mind. It’s about that time again, in fact – Sep. 10! (Click here to see a preview of what to expect at this year’s from photographer Gernelle Nelson.) You can taste the vendors’ samples, take classes and watch a chocolate-covered documentary. While I always recommend VIP, I really recommend it here: It’s a full hour of unfettered access to the chocolate before the crowds stream in. THIS JUST IN: Use code CHOCOLATEFUN to get $5 off admission to DCF or DCF Movie Night!!
Dallas Chocolate Festival – a fun way to try chocolate from all over.
6. Schakolad Chocolate Factory
Pronounced “SHOCK-AH-LAHD” this chocolateria is part of a decades-old franchise that was first developed by a founder that had a family legacy in truffle making. Not just a storefront, they also offer classes, parties and cater to private events. While the Fort Worth store is in Sundance Square, they do ship. Kosher and vegan options are available, though the offerings change, so be sure to check with them online or at the store. Create a custom box from here.
7. Dr. Sue’s Chocolate
I’ve tried Dr. Sue’s chocolate (she’s a practicing physician!) at several different festivals, but haven’t been inside her Grapevine store yet. She explains her process and flavor choices to anyone who asks, and I can say that her dark chocolate has a unique depth of flavor I’ve had difficulty finding elsewhere. I still don’t see it on her website, but the Rosemary Oil Dark is the most memorable and decadent chocolate I’ve yet to experience. She’s got others: dark with candied jalapeno, some with hatch chile. She’s not messing around.
Dr. Sue of Dr. Sue’s Chocolate, photo from her website.
8. Yelibelly Chocolates
Ohhh, tasting parties! You can bring your chocolate-loving friends right to the store, or get it at a venue of your choosing. Yelibelly even offers chocolate wedding favors. And I’m just now learning what a Liquid Nitrogen Party is (different from the whippit parties of my youth, I’m sure) but they use LN to create a creamier ice cream or alcoholic concoction with a fascinating chilly process. It’s an off-site event that starts at $500 but if your birthday beloved loves ice cream…
Yelubely’s Frozen Champage (photo Yelibelly)
9. See’s Candies
While this seems to be an American institution, I didn’t know about See’s Candies until I came to Texas over 20 years ago. There are locations all over: in stores, malls, Hong Kong, the Nebraska Furniture Mart. Lots of delicious-looking lovelies like chocolate confections, lollipops, brittle and toffees, even (oof) licorice medallions that can be shipped, picked up or eaten on site. Nifty vintage-looking packaging and there’s an option to filter by dietary allergens and preferences, too.
Polar Bear Paws by See’s Candies, from their website
10. Chocolate Secrets
Just looking at the colorful, often gold-glittered offerings at Chocolate Secrets, your first thought will probably be “Wow, those are gorgeous.” These are delicious but are also for presentation and maybe some serious butt-kissing: A 9-piece box of hand-painted bonbons is currently $26. The 16-piece alcoholic bonbons with a range of whiskey, port and rum are $60. For the souvenir-giver, you can pick up quite a few Texas-themed chocolates, for funsies. And if chocolates aren’t your thing, they sell ice cream, cakes and coffee too.
Chocolate Secrets “Atieh” Collection. Pic from their website.
BONUS: Unexpected Chocolate Experiences
- Uncle Julio’s has a Chocolate Pinata delivered to your table – a hollow ball of chocolate filled with pineapple, berries and churros. It actually hangs on a small hook in front of you, on a large platter with raspberry, chocolate and caramel sauces. You smack it open with their tiny hammer, and all that deliciousness becomes a waterfall of sweet swag.
- Truluck’s Seafood has a Chocolate Sack brought to you on a plate. Your server knocks it on its side then slices into the delicate, rich shell, exposing the berries, cake and whipped cream within. As soon as you think your day can’t get any better, he or she then pours hot fudge from a boat all over it. Then you dig in and feel nothing but chocolate gratitude.
- You’ve probably heard of Edible Arrangements but if you’ve never had a gorgeous bouquet of chocolate-dipped fruit on sticks delivered to your face, it may be worth the expense. Even the smallest boxes have enough of the rich delicacies to share, and it’s not a “cheap” tasting chocolate. I’ve had a few in my day, and my favorites are still the strawberries, apples and pineapple, dipped in milk or dark, not white. There are probably enough locations to get something delivered to your town, but the one near me has a walk-in shop too. The presentation is truly memorable if you get a big bouquet. I swear I don’t work for these people, but it’s PRACTICALLY HEALTHY, you know?? All that fruit??
There are plenty of places in the metroplex and beyond to get fine chocolate, so where do you get yours?
