had some from COSTCO recently-excellent dark--from Belgium.

That Dagoba bar with chile peppers was a taste epiphany for me when I tried it outside their shop in PDX a couple of years ago...thankfully the local Whole Foods stocks much of their line for whenever I need to remind myself. The combo of chocolate and fruity chile heat is awesome!

Does anyone know if the still do "Chocolate at the Pen" in Chicago? I heard it's great and it was discussed very early in this thread. I'm headed to Chi in March and would love to do nothing but eat chocolate while I'm not working!

I have a vosges barcelona bar on my desk right now.

L'etoile, The Michel Cluziel bars are sold here in Seattle at my grocery store.

lala

According to their website... yes.


Also on Friday and Saturday evenings, enjoy Chocolate at The Pen, featuring our decadent chocolate buffet.

Thanks MissyD - I looked on the website under the dining link on the left side of the page but it didn't come up. I'm thrilled that it's still active. I will be dieting from now until April...

http://chicago.peninsula.com/pch/dining_03.html

i didn't look hard enough... because apparently its available Thursday too.

Chocolate Bar
Thursday - 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm
Friday and Saturday - 7:00 pm to 12:00 am

How about the first ever FT Chocolate DO? I will be in Chicago April 23 - 27! Let's eat!!:p

I fell in love with Leonidas while in Lille about 10 years ago. Now whenever I or any of my friends go to Europe, we're required to bring about 10 boxes of pre-packed pralines back with us!

They have two shops here in the NoVa/DC area that sell the pre-packed chocolates, but none with the "select your own" pralines.

Only if we get to DO Vosges :D

Interesting that CHI should be such the chocolate epicenter in the US, I would have innocently thought of NYC first. But hey, if the theme is chocolate then I'm all over it!

Does that mean I have to fly AA or UA into ORD? :confused:

Hey, I don't have any idea if Chicago really is the chocolate epicenter of the world (CEW), but the combination of "Chocolate at the Pen" and my already scheduled trip to Chicago is reason enough for me. It really would be great to do a chocolate DO though, wherever that might take us. I would think there might be a number of cities in the running for "CEW" and if we get a consensus, I'm IN!!:D

Chocolate DO
 

I am not quite sure about my favorite chocolate. Prefer to keep on testing :D

As a suggestion for a chocolate DO, Cologne even has a chocolate museum!!!

Does anyone have a recommendation for a US city that would be in the running for a chocolate DO? As I said above, I only brought up Chicago because I'm going anyway and staying at the Pen. The more I thought about this over the weekend, the more I thought it might really be fun. So ...

What are the nominees for US chocolate central? Hershey, PA? NYC? SFO - Ghirardelli?

It wouldn't be the first... there have been several Chocolate-centric FT events ... including Chocolate at the Pen.... but there is always room for another. :)

Seattle has some award winning chocolatiers.

Fran's and Theo


Come to think of it, maybe I'll put the Theo Factory tour on the list of SeaDoo events this year.