Schakolad
It doesn’t take much, but sometimes you just need a treat, something as a reward for a job well done, or as consolation for something that goes awry. We have a solution at hand in downtown St. Pete: the Schakolad Chocolate Factory (401 Central Ave, St. Petersburg, FL 33701; Tel: 727-892-2400, Fax: 727-898-1960), open Mon through Friday, 8:00 am-5:00 pm and Saturday, 10:00 am-5:00 pm.
As I say, it doesn’t take much, and fortunately, Schakolad will sell by the piece. For me, 2 or 3 small pieces of dark chocolate, maybe chased with a coffee, is all it takes to set the world aright. Of course, they sell in larger quantities, but it’s the quick fix that makes this place special for me.
Also, the fact that you can watch the “choclatitian” (that’s my made up word) pouring liquid chocolate into molds right there is tempting. The smell of the chocolate…it’ll lift any spirit that needs lifting.
Gifts That Will Be Remembered
Ordinarily, I don’t write up franchise shops, but Schakolad is an exception because it preserves a mom and pop atmosphere and attitude that really puts quality and the customer first. Also, it’s a fledgling franchise that has its origins in Florida although the family’s tradition in chocolate goes back several generations to Argentina. You can read the complete story at the website.
If you can’t make it to the store, you can also order direct from the website, but I would encourage you to visit the store to make your selection. The special gifts you’ll see, comprised entirely of chocolate, will give you ideas you hadn’t considered. I remember, after 25+ years, a gift of a solid chocolate miniature grand piano I was given by some friends. Something like that makes an impression.
In addition to everyday occasions such as gifts for your loved ones (and yourself), birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, teacher’s gifts. and weddings, they also create special items for corporate and professional gifts. You might not think of a food item as a corporate promotional gift, but–if the indelible impression a gift makes on memory is a measure–the gift of chocolate brownies a recording studio gave its steady customers one year is still remembered by this recipient. Chocolate is a winning gift for any occasion.
Chocolate Festivals
The Schakolad company has had several Fontainebleau Chocolate Festival winners. There are a number of chocolate festivals every year. The Colorado Chocolate Festival has a page listing many of them, but that’s not the only list. No one list seems to be definitive, but if you search on Google for “chocolate festivals,” you’ll get about 2,500,000 hits.
Hawaiian Chocolate
One festival is special for me, because it’s near where my sister lives, on the Big Island (the Island of Hawaii), the Kona Chocolate Festival. Chocolate probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Hawaii, but chocolate is from the seed of a tropical plant, the cacao plant.
My favorite Hawaiian chocolate is grown and manufactured–all in the same location–by the Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory. It’s just at the south end of Kailua-Kona, HI (Kona, for short). They have tours at the farm (it’s a cacao farm and a chocolate factory) and although they do sell some samples there, they prefer you do your shopping at one of the places on the islands that carries their products. In Kona, that’s the Kailua Candy Company. What a magnificent store. An enormous factory section that is visible to the customers plus every possible fresh chocolate confection you can imagine. I can hardly wait to return there. If the notion of Kona intrigues you, the best site to learn more about it, is the Kona Web. Also, please check out my sister’s blog, Lava to Lilikoi in which she documents her gardening on the Big Island as well as other items of interest. I’m hoping she does a post on the Kona chocolate scene!
The Snell Arcade
Schakolad, in downtown St. Pete, is in the Snell Arcade, a building with a history going back to the mid 20s. It’s style can only be described as Baroque. I’ve never seen anything like it. “Gingerbread” doesn’t even cover it. I love it. Some friends have a condo in one of the upper floors that rivals anything I’ve seen in New York City. When you’re at Schakolad, take a few minutes and explore the arcade, its arches, and tile inlays. I’m so glad someone had the vision to restore it. The Snell Arcade Architect of Record is a young architect, instrumental in the revitalization of downtown St. Pete, Timothy N. Clemmons, who, incidentally, turned me on to one of my favorite, authentic Chinese restaurants in St. Pete, ABC Seafood…but, that’s for a later post.
In case you’re too young to remember when the word arcade was associated with architecture and not electronic games, an arcade is a passage through a building from one area to another. Long ago, when downtowns had many department stores, there were often arcades, mid-block, that were a way to get to a parallel block without making the trek around a complete city block. These arcades were cozy affairs because for a brief moment you were out of the elements and they were usually filled with their own little specialty shops that gave these passageways a magical charm. (Think Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley.) You see vestiges of the arcade concept in subways, tubes, and metros where underground arcades connect stations and house magazine stands and convenience stores.
A parting note: check out Virtual Chocolate. It’s a website where you can send e-greeting cards that are chocolate themed!
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We love Schakolade. We patronize the one on South Howard in Tampa. When we have dinner parties and want something for our guests to take home they make chocolate place cards. Yeah, we entertain like that, but not as much as we used to. The place cards come in several sizes, and are self supporting. They are available in dark, milk, and white chocolate. They are a nice little memento, and a bit of sweet fun at the same time.