When you're on vacation, you have to pamper yourself a little bit. You don't want to feel bad about having a guilty pleasure or two along the way. During our trip to Asheville, NC earlier this year, we had passed a place that seemed to be very popular while we were there. After a very good dinner one evening, we were walking back to our hotel and we decided to stop into the French Broad Chocolate Lounge and see why people were standing dozens deep outside the front door.
By happenstance, Jael Skeffington and Dan Rattigan met at her brother's wedding in the Twin Cities in 2003 - she was in the wedding party, while he was the bartender at the reception. The two got to know each other as the smitten Jael hung around the bar. It turned out that they were both grad students at the University of Minnesota - she was in business school and he was in law school. Jael told Dan that she was getting ready to go to Costa Rica for an environmental business conference in a couple of days. It turned out that Dan was also an environmentalist. Jael got on the plane to go to Costa Rica and Dan decided not long after that he wanted to follow her down there. He followed her to Central America, the two soon fell in love and ended up in a small village by the name of Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast.
Dan and Jael returned to Minnesota, but soon decided to drop out of graduate school. They procured a vegetable oil-powered school bus and drove it over 3600 miles all the way back down to Puerto Viejo. The couple soon bought a small - 5 acre - cacao farm and started a small cafe and dessert shop by the name of Bread and Chocolate. The couple soon married and learned the craft of chocolatiering from locals and from books, making chocolates from their cacao trees on their little farm in the kitchen of their little cafe.
Pictured right - Dan and Jael Rattigan. Photo courtesy Mountain Xpress.
Within a couple of years they had a young son and were thinking that it was time to go back to the States. Upon the recommendation of customers who came to their little cafe, the family decided to load up the bus and head up to Asheville to start a new life. The Rattigans started out making chocolate desserts in their kitchen and began to sell them at local farmers markets. They quickly garnered a reputation for having some of the best chocolate treats around.
They moved the newly named French Broad Chocolates out of their house and into a small store front on Asheville's Lexington Ave. in 2008. There, they sold chocolate desserts, truffles, cakes, cookies and hot chocolate drinks. And tapping into the burgeoning craft beer movement in the area, the couple also sold locally brewed beers and wine. But it wasn't long before the couple found that they were quickly outgrowing the Lexington Ave. location.
In 2014, French Broad Chocolate Lounge opened in their present location on Pack Square in downtown Asheville. (see map) There is also a chocolate factory and a tasting room for French Broad Chocolates on Buxton Street just south of downtown Asheville. (see map) Today, the Rattigans employ 70 people and even though they still harvest over 500 pounds of cacao beans annually from their Costa Rican property, they also get cacao from Peru and Nicaragua. The couple also provides a living wage and a cost-sharing insurance plan for their employees, and the French Broad Chocolate Lounge is one of the top "green" restaurants in the nation honored by the Green Restaurant Association for their solar hot water system and the energy efficient appliances they use. (French Broad Chocolates will also ship anywhere in the U.S. Click here to go to their ordering page.)
The first night we were in Asheville, it was the Sunday night of a holiday weekend. The line to get into French Broad Chocolate Lounge was stretching out the door and down the street. A couple nights later when we went by, the line was still out the door, but a much less amount of people were standing in line. Actually, by the time we got to the counter, the line was probably 25 to 30 people standing in line out the door and onto the sidewalk. We thought our timing was impeccable.
We only had to wait a few moments to get up to the front counter where you place your order. The menu was on a chalk board and featured a number of desserts, chocolate confections, cookies, brownies, different types of cakes, truffles and caramels. By the time we got to the counter to see what they offered, our heads were already spinning with the choices we had.
It only got worse when we made it up to order our desserts. They make all of their ice cream in-house at French Broad Chocolates. The swirling, creamy texture of the ice cream was almost too good to pass up.
The case holding the cheesecakes, brownies, cookies and other delectable items was also calling my name. I saw a cheesecake that literally jumped out and grabbed me by the collar and said, "You HAVE to get a piece of me, man!"
We lingered long and hard at the truffle and caramel case. There were over a dozen varieties of truffles and a like number of coated caramels available. We made a decision to try a little bit of everything. My wife wanted ice cream. I wanted cheesecake. We both saw truffles that we wanted. By the time we were finished ordering at the register, it was well over a $20 bill for what we got.
I ended up getting the key lime cheesecake - the one that was screaming at me to order it - that was made with a ginger cracker crust. Drizzles of chocolates lined the sides of the cheesecake slice. And it was heavenly and sinful at the same time. The creaminess of the key lime cheesecake literally melted in my mouth. It was so rich and full of flavor. It was simply killer.
My wife went with a scoop of the Costa Rican chocolate ice cream. She offered me a bite, but I declined - I usually don't eat much chocolate, but she insisted that I take a bite. It was unlike any chocolate ice cream that I've ever had. The chocolate flavor burst open in my mouth. It was creamy and literally melted across my tongue. Wow! It was certainly something else.
Of course, we had to get truffles. The guy at the front counter who we ordered from said that his favorite was the horchata truffle - it featured white chocolate mixed with cinnamon and vanilla, then drizzled with milk chocolate and sprinkled with toasted rice. We had to have one each of those. My wife also got hazelnut crunch truffle - it featured milk chocolate with ground hazelnut butter and caramelized hazelnut bits, then covered with dark chocolate. For my other choice, I got maple and smoked salt truffle. It featured local farm maple syrup mixed with organic butter and dipped in a blend of milk and dark chocolate, then sprinkled with smoked salt.
The truffles were some of the best that we've ever had. The taste sensations that went on with each truffle we tried were mind-blowing. We've had the truffles from Christopher Elbow Chocolates in Kansas City (our late neighbor lady was a great aunt to Christopher Elbow) and we thought those may have been the best we've ever tried. But the ones we had at French Broad were easily on par - if not better - than the Christopher Elbow truffles. They were just that good.
So, we figured out why the lines snaked out the door and down the street in front of French Broad Chocolate Lounge. The desserts are world class, pure and simple. The key lime cheesecake with the ginger crust was scrumptious, I had never experienced the taste explosion that I had with the Costa Rican chocolate ice cream, and the truffles were sinfully wonderful. I don't know how anyone could show any restraint at French Broad Chocolate Lounge with all the tasty and delectable desserts they have to offer. We were scared to go back in the mornings for coffee and espresso because we knew we'd go overboard on the desserts. Our visit there was truly one of the highlights of our trip to Asheville.
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