February 2007 | Tastebuds

Chocolatebox Café

Slow down and leave the laptop at home

By Lucinda Michele Knapp

It’s no secret that LA is overrun by Starbucks. With piped-in jazz and WiFi behind each neo-Tuscan exterior, their uniformity is downright banal. “Everything has become so similar and mass-produced,” says Harmik Baghdasarian, co-founder of Chocolatebox Café in La Canada. He brandishes a miniature espresso in a ceramic cup. “We don’t want people to come and work here. We want them to come in and relax, like they do in Italy. You don’t see Italians working while they are at cafes. And that civilization has lasted much longer.”

Harmik founded the chocolate shop and gelateria — which appears like nothing so much as a Tiffany’s for chocolate, a jewel-box of a chocolatier — with his lifelong friend Zareh Baghdasarian. The two entrepreneurs focus on quality, not quantity. Chocolates are hand-made in small batches by artisans in Belgium, who obtain the first harvest of cacao from South America for the most authentic flavor. They conform to European organic standards, helping to perpetuate organic farming of cacao and other key ingredients. And they’re less sweet than the run-of-the-mill See’s or Whitman’s that cram shelves beginning in January. Less sugar means they don’t have the shelf life of those other chocolates — which is a good thing. Who wants to eat something that’s been on a shelf for three months?

Chocolatebox boldly departs from tried-and-boring flavors, with infusions like green tea-bergamot, pear, rose, cinnamon, pistachio, mango, wild strawberry, violet, champagne or chili pepper, all handmade in velvety ganaches and truffles. A violet marzipan is perfumed, not cloying, and melts lightly. White truffle-blueberry’s mouthwateringly fresh berry flavors linger. The chili pepper truffle expands with the slow whiz-bang of rich chocolate and the subtle, building heat of the chili.

So stop in at Chocolatebox, sit back, enjoy a truffle and an espresso.

Just don’t bring your laptop.

714 Foothill Blvd., La Cañada Flintridge. 818.790.7918, 10 am to 9 pm

[Send] Recommend this page to a friend

AddThis Feed Button

Top Ten pages recommended to friends:

  1. A World Without Men
  2. The Fluoride Factor
  3. Cook’s Double Dutch
  4. Mastering Migraines
  5. We Like it Raw
  6. LA’s Blue Velvet takes its place at the sustainable table
  7. Exploring Yoga’s Outer Limits with Ana Forrest
  8. Open Up and Say Raw
  9. A Family Undertaking
  10. Eco-fashion Comes of Age

Find WLT In Print
Subscribe to Newsletter