Chi-O Cuties

Just wanted to do a quick blog post about how awesome my sorority family is! As you all know, i relocated from omaha to algona and left some of my closest friends there. All is not lost though, my friends are not just friends...they are family. My sorority sisters from Chi Omega are amazing and just thinking of them always brings a smile to my face.In fact, all 5 of them drove to Algona to help at the shop for a weekend (they worked NON-STOP), and even surprised me with the first ever Chocolate Season t-shirt (they are so creative!)Each girl in my family is completely different, but somehow, we all share a common bond and explode with happiness or laughter whenever we're around each other.The first in my family is Julie, she is my little sis. With a heart for those in her neighborhood and for those around the world, she never stops giving and with a listening ear, gives amusing but insightful advice. Julie was the first Chocolate Season employee and i count her as one of my most cherished friends.Next in the lineage is Felicia, Julie's lil' sis. When Julie left for Africa, Felicia stepped in as Chocolate Season employee number two. Felicia is candid and witty. She has many attributes, including an insane amount of intelligence and drive, but also an odd sense of humor and uncanny ability to knit :)After Felicia comes Hannah. I looooove how blunt and honest Hannah is. She and I can laugh about anything and she is quite the fashionista, (i love it when she lets me borrow her stylish threads!) I truly believe she is going to be the world's best mother, or the first multi-millionaire global real estate queen. Hannah's lil' is Jena. And Jena is a lil' lil' :) She is my perfect pocket-sized sister and her smile is nothing but contagious. Jena's gutsy and daring, and i couldn't imagine my perfect Saturday night without her and her many stories. Hannah and Jena both have stepped on multiple occasions at a moment's notice to help with the biz and I'm so grateful for their support and hard work.and last but certainly not least, would be our newest lil', Molly. Since the move happened right when she joined the family, i have not had a ton of time with her, so i relish any opportunities i get to talk with her.
She is very sweet and genuine, and as i found out when she came to algona, quite the aspiring chef (she could make a yogurt sauce that would knock your socks off...and her mudball pre-coating ability is inspiring) and i can't wait for her to come back to the shop!

love you girls :) and thank you for all your support, encouragement and time, and for always laughing (or attempting a small chuckle) at all my bad jokes :P

one month wrap up

It's been a month! We opened the day of a blizzard and still had excited chocolate-enthusiasts braving the weather to come check us out. It's been a blur of chocolate dipping, coffee making, cleaning, accounting, baking and so much more :)
I can't tell you how fun its been and what a continued learning experience it is for us to figure out what our customers crave, how to train employees, learning how to use the cash register and change the tape in our pricing gun and besides all the daily chores, i still get to bake, create, and educate customers on our products and about chocolate in general. (which, by far, is my FAVORITE part)
We had a lovely grand opening with around 70 people showing up. Algona's response and support overwhelms and humbles us, we couldn't ask for a better community to live and work in. We had a variety of treats and those in attendance got to see a glimpse of what we do. But since you all couldn't be there, i'll describe some of the "yums" at the store.

The imported cheeses (and always one domestic!) as well as native Jasper wines are very popular and people love the fact that they have gourmet food options right in their back yard. The mornings always feature one or two breakfast items that are, yes, made THAT MORNING!

People are in shock when they realize they are not purchasing items baked from frozen Sysco or Sam's club and when they taste it, they just about fall over from disbelief because homemade items are just not something you find in retail stores anymore.

But that makes my job all the more rewarding and I love exciting customers with new items or flavors they wouldn't normally pair (hmmm, banana nutella bread and chocolate chip amaretto bread pudding and *gasp* muffins with a complimentary yogurt/fruit sauce)

We have fresh brewed drip coffee (no over-roasting here!), sensational lattes (with real chocolate and caramel) and hot chocolate or sipping chocolate (made from chocolate. not syrup. and not powders)

The afternoon is enticing with artisan chocolates and fudge from the case, any of our worldly chocolate bars, dipped apricots or fresh cookies, gourmet popcorns, or a "snack of the day" which you will find at least one or two, if not several options like decadence cake, vanilla-cardamon mousse cake with raspberries, cupcakes, cheesecakes, brownies or whatever inspires us that afternoon.

What people are loving about the shop is our relaxed atmosphere, free WiFi, friendly customer service, and the fact that everything you find is natural, no preservatives. Everything you eat you can pronounce ;) and we make our chocolates and other sweet treats daily right in the store. Everything but the cheese, wine and chocolate bars are made from scratch in-house, and even when you order on-line, you are still getting your treats made just for you :)

Besides the yum-yums, we have lavender products, purses, vintage hair accessories and super cool and flattering aprons!

Lastly, I want to thank you all for being loyal friends and customers, and for making our dream, The Chocolate Season, come true. We hope to continue to thrill and inspire you with our creations and hope that our life's passion will become sweet moments in yours.

Can you believe it?

We're open. Yes, we are open :) The Chocolate Season Confiserie and Dessert Cafe just finished our first week in Algona, IA, our new home (we hope they'll keep us around for a looooong time)
We opened during a blizzard but we still had loyal friends brave the snow, ice and wind to sample a latte or some chocolate and after that, the next 6 days were all a blur of training of employees (lissa and rachel) baking, chocolate-making, ribbon tying, reports, coffee grounds and foam.
Algona has been nothing but wonderful in their welcome and interest in the store and we've already had repeat customers. (we haven't even advertised yet...but we are recording a radio ad tomorrow...wish us luck!)
We open 7 to 5:30 Tuesday thru Friday and 8 to 2 on Saturday and even though its only been a week, it seems like we've been doing this at the store forever. We also opened up the on-line shopping cart Tuesday night and already had some orders! (yes, we need to update the web site to match the theme of the store and to showcase lavender, aprons, hair clips, purses and our new luxury gift boxes that are replacing the baskets (which i looooooove the new gift boxes!) but you can always call our new number if you have any questions or need to special order something (515-395-2462)

Our day starts early in the morning when we bake something fresh for the AM crowd, be it scones, banana bread, granola, brioche etc and then in the afternoon we try to bring out new cookies, brownies, tart, cake by the slice or this week i hope to get some chocolate custards or mousse out. Throughout the day we help pick chocolates out for people, make lattes, and our classic hot chocolate and European sipping chocolate has been extremely popular, and to sweeten your morning or afternoon, every drink comes with a little piece of milk or dark chocolate!

So how do we serve all our great customers and keep up with inventory? (which we ran out of continuously this week! i had to try to split time with training, being out front with customers, and in the kitchen making chocolates all week, and brad and i stayed at the store every night till 10-10:30 just trying to keep up!) But that's ok, because i have a secret weapon. :0)


My weapon is called.....Brad. and Mom. oh, and Dad. Yes, they have not left my side this entire week...i even get customers in requesting Brad's lattes, and no one greets customers quite like mom, she warms up the entire store with her charm and could sell a winter coat to a polar bear :) and dad's been wonderful with helping get the accounting books started and saving us with a drip coffee pot...long story....

One morning mom and dad even got to the store before us to start the coffee, put away some surprise groceries and sweep the floor. how lucky are we? i would have crashed and burned without mom, dad and brad's love, support, encouragement and all the time they spent helping with the store.Hope you enjoy some pictures of the store, and i'll try to update again soon (once i find an ounce of time!) But please come visit us to try some luxurious imported cheeses (which have been selling like crazy!) some wine from Jasper winery, chocolates, gourmet apples and treats, our fine solid chocolate bars, desserts or shop around for vintage hair clips, aprons or purses :)
If you have any questions, or suggestions, or requests, email us at contact@thechocolateseason.com, call 515-395-2462 or order online at thechocolateseason.com :)

PS- if you can find the time, try to stop by 114 N. Dodge St Algona, IA, for our ribbon cutting on 2/12 at 9:30 for samples and fun times and then Bradley's Photography, which opens in a couple weeks (and is suuuuuuuuuuuch a cool gallery and meeting place) has his grand opening on 3/5 at 9:30!

Almost Completed!

well, i'm sure you're all upset with me for not blogging properly the last couple months. but....if i had been blogging, then i would not have been working on the store, then i'd never be able to open, and you'd never get to eat truffles, rocky road popcorn or all sorts of lovely treats from the chocolate season ever again. :P so i figure you'd forgive my lack of posting with some updated pictures of the store!


things are moving along, you saw some of our "before" photos when i last posted, and here are some "inbetween" photos, and then the last ones are "so close i can taste the finish, but not quite there yet" photos.

what's taking so long you may ask? well, really, with the help of friends and family (toooooooo many friends to count (just trying to name some would be: the stones, limbaughs, christensens, loeschens, joe marck and lizzie lebedz (their generous personalities will deserve a note all by themselves!) and many many more!) and some of the key players have been: rich and linda feaster, ed and becky berg, and sara and scott lockard, but, as you can tell, we've been doing a lot of the demo/construction/finishing touches ourselves. So, as talented as we think we are :) we're not as fast as professionals!

but we've been doing lighting, painting, then touch ups for painting, building the bar, doing baseboard and quarter round, then searching for inventory (aprons, purses, wine etc), ordering business cards, GC cards and envelopes, more kitchen accessories, prints and frames for the studio, sewing pillows for the store (thanks sara!) finding more furniture, ordering chocolate, making the chalkboard, figuring out pricing for ALL the products, learning how to use our cash register (ok, that's on the "to-do" list still) setting up a credit terminal, ordering and putting away boxes for confections, setting up the kitchen and familiarizing myself with my surroundings, ordering coffee equipment, coffee, learning how to USE the coffee equipment *ha ha ha*

and brad's still doing photography, print orders, making albums, responding to emails etc, and these are all things we've been doing...and there's so much more i can't even remember it all! oh yes...and lets not forget the fact that bradley and i bought a new house and we finally closed on it after "renting" and living there for a month...so we are slowly...slowly....trying to unpack and make it our own!

so i hope you enjoyed some photos, sorry, there's still newspaper on our gorgeous front windows, and yes, i need to do some major cleaning...but you'll get the idea!

also, what's to come? well, an awning for the front of the building in the next week (i hope!) putting in the coffee equipment, finishing the bench cushions, getting tables and chairs, and hiring and training an employee, doing a ton of paperwork, and hoping for a potential opening in mid-end january. *gulp* wish us luck and i'll let you all know when we're open and when the shopping cart is ready to use for national and international orders! (even though i expect all of you to come to algona to see us at the store!)

thanks again for all your support and interest....and see you soon....at the store! you can browse gorgeous photography with a very handsome photographer, or just stop by and pull up a chair at the chocolate bar :P