Traverse City: Haute Chocolate Contender

Already known for its cherries, wines and breathtaking scenery, northern Michigan resort town Traverse City has become an unlikely contender in the world of haute chocolate.

French Culinary Institute chef Jacques Torres, whose PBS “Dessert Circus” series helped earn him the nickname “Mr. Chocolate,” is opening his first chocolate shop outside New York City in Traverse City. Torres says he fell in love with the unspoiled region several years ago as a guest chef in one of Traverse City’s many food festivals. Now he owns a summer home there.

Directly across the street from Torres’ shop, chef Phil Murray has opened Phil’s on Front, a restaurant and chocolate bar aimed at the same high-end chocolate lovers. The new eatery combines an 80-seat bistro with a "chocolate lounge" where handcrafted chocolates are paired with wines and spirits, including several variations on the ever-popular chocolate martini.

“It’s kind of bizarre that all this is happening here in little old Traverse City,” Murray says. “But after all, why not?”

The chocolates are actually made two blocks away at Murray’s other enterprise, Chocolate Exotica, which has been luring chocolate lovers in off the street since 2007 in spite of its tucked-away location. It features a wide selection of handmade truffles, barks, dipped fruits and confections, such as Louis XVI cakes (almond and chocolate cakes soaked with Grand Marnier, and layered with chocolate mousse and truffle filling).

These newcomers join such well-established chocolatiers as the Chocolate Den, whose owners pride themselves on the fact that their preservative-free truffles have only a three-week shelf life, and Kilwin’s of Traverse City, one of the oldest stores in a popular chain started in nearby Petoskey in 1947 that now has 50 outlets.

In addition, there’s the question of fudge, a confection scorned by some chocolate purists but deeply intertwined with Traverse City’s identity as a tourist destination. In fact, locals habitually refer to the region’s summer visitors as “fudgies” because of their insatiable appetite for it. That’s been going ever since 1887, when an enterprising boat builder and sail maker named Henry Murdick sold his first batch of chocolate fudge to a batch of visitors on nearby Mackinac Island. Murdick eventually founded a complex dynasty of fudge-makers and confectioners. (One branch migrated to Martha’s Vineyard -- another island destination similar to Mackinac.) Traverse City is home to Doug Murdick, whose two stores make 16 varieties of fudge; his son Dale has a shop in nearby Suttons Bay.

But the region didn’t begin to carve out a national reputation among high-end chocolate fanciers until 2004, when former social worker Mimi Wheeler began creating intensely-flavored artisan chocolates that blended Ecuadorian cocoa with local herbs, flowers, fruits, nuts and honey. Her tiny candy factory, Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate, located in the tiny coastal village of Empire, offers such delicacies as lavender and rosemary truffles, and even a Mayan truffle flavored with a subtle dose of chili. (See ChocolateAtlas.com: Chocolatier Mimi Wheeler: Founder of Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate.)

The area’s burgeoning wine industry has also been quick to explore the ways in which chocolate and wine complement each other. At the Brys Estate Winery, for instance, new tastings of the vineyard’s signature pinot noir are accompanied by small squares of dark chocolate truffle.

Chocolate-making in the Traverse City area has inspired The Guide to Chocolate in the Grand Traverse Region, by Indianapolis native Barbara Disborough. Released in November, the book contains maps, directions and reviews of a wide variety of chocolate products.

Edited by Patricia D. Sherman

©ChocolateAtlas.com

Contact us:  Editor  Webmaster