One night, Cindy and I were talking with our backyard neighbor, Barb Fensterbusch, and she was telling us about a relative of hers by the name of Christopher Elbow who makes exotic, high-end chocolates in Kansas City. Since we'd just been in Kansas City earlier in the summer, Cindy remarked that she would have loved to have gone there to check his place out.
Christopher Elbow (left) graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1996 with a degree is Restaurant and Business Administration. He went home to Kansas City and ran Shiraz restaurant for three years. In 1999, he went to Las Vegas to work for Emeril Lagasse in the new Delmonico Steakhouse in the Venetian. Not long after that, he ended up helping acclaimed chef Jean Joho open the posh Eiffel Tower restaurant in the Paris Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
Elbow eventually moved back to Kansas City and found himself at the American Restaurant, a world class restaurant in the Crown Center shopping plaza. Elbow was the pastry chef and he soon found that he had a flair for making "artisanal chocolates", small chocolate treats filled with fruits or liqueurs. In fact, he got so good at it, he struck out on his own and opened Christopher Elbow Artisanal Chocolates a couple years ago.
When I was in Kansas City recently, I had just finished meeting with a dealer account of mine in the downtown area. Remembering that Elbow Chocolates were not far from my dealer, I decided to go down and get a box to take back to Barb.
Except, I had trouble finding the place. The address showed that it was on Southwest Blvd. (see map), but where the business should have been was a Mitchell Gold contemporary furniture store. Finally, I saw a small sign for Christopher Elbow Chocolates above one of the doors of the furniture store.
I went into the store and looked around. It didn't look like a place that would sell chocolates, but then looking toward the back of the store, there was a confectionery case and what appeared to be a kitchen directly behind that. Sure enough, I'd found Christopher Elbow Chocolates.
A young girl came out and asked if she could help me. They had an assortment of pre-packed chocolates in the case - the smallest was a nine piece assortment in a nice box with a bow on it. I knew that if I brought a box home for Barb, Cindy would be complaining that I didn't bring any home for her.
I told the girl that I wanted two boxes and she said, "OK, those are $18.00 each." I about jumped, but thought better of it. They also had a number of single chocolates in the case and I asked, "How much are they individually?"
She said, "$2.75 each." I told her I'd just take the two boxes of nine.
As she was ringing me up, I asked her if one of the three workers I could see working in the back was Christopher Elbow. She said, "No, I'm sorry but Christopher's out of town for a couple days." Oh well. No biggie.
Now, I'm not big on chocolate and I'm not very big on filled chocolates, but the boxes I brought home were rather intriguing. The flavors ranged from a Strawberry Balsamic, to a Pear Cinnamon caramel, to a Venezuelan Spice, to a Passion Fruit. I told Cindy that I wanted to pick three and she could have the rest.
She looked at the box of chocolates (which come with a little "road map" to tell what they are) and she said, "Geez, they're almost too pretty to eat!"
The first one that I took was the Grand Marnier filled chocolate. I'm a sucker for Grand Marnier in chocolate. It was very flavorful - probably the best one of that type I'd ever had.
The second one I picked was the Rosemary Caramel. I fully expected it to be chewy, but my teeth went right through it to the filling and only after I got past the taste of the chocolate and the hint of rosemary did I get to the chewiness of the caramel.
And the last one I picked was the Vietnamese Cinnamon. Vietnam supposedly has some of the most strong and pungent cinnamon in the world and this was no exception. The cinnamon taste didn't overpower the chocolate, it complemented the chocolate. And the taste lingered for minutes in my mouth. Wow!
I took a box up to Barb and she was overly appreciative. It was the least I could do since she lets us swim in her pool each summer.
She said that Christopher Elbow's mother was just there to see her a couple weeks prior and she said that his business is growing so fast that he's moving to a bigger facility in Kansas City. She said, "His mother told me that he's on track to make 50,000 pieces of chocolate this year and he's outgrown that place he's in now."
Christopher Elbow chocolates are available on his web site, and they're all available at Hall's department store in Kansas City, as well as a growing list of high-end confectionery stores across the nation. They may be expensive, but they're worth it.
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