Chocolate Daze sweetens downtown Wooster
Hearts, diamonds and chocolate ruled downtown during Main Street Wooster’s annual Chocolate Daze held Feb. 12-13. The event dovetails nicely with both Valentine’s Day and the long Presidents Day weekend, and is designed to jump-start shoppers and diners out of their winter doldrums and back into the habit of coming downtown.The biggest temptation? Twenty-nine shops and restaurants offering everything from Hershey’s kisses and chocolate fountains to books about chocolate to chocolate barbecue.
Chocolate barbecue? Sort of.
At Omaha Bob’s BBQ on the square, the popular items were pulled pork, ribs and brisket. Still, there was huge basket of chocolate barbecue behind the counter.
It came in small bags--each with three solid chocolate letters--BBQ--with an attached take-home menu.
At White Jewelers on East Liberty, there was chocolate to eat and chocolate and caramel gems to admire. The milk chocolate, melt-in-your mouth diamonds came from Coblentz Chocolate, which has provided items to White since the Wooster Weekly News began sponsoring Chocolate Daze three years ago.
There also were plenty of entries to win a Coblentz Chocolate gift basket, according to store owner Heather Kobilarcik.
And sales were brisk, she was happy to report. “It took four of us (employees) both days to handle everything,” she said. “I think it was better than 2009.”
There were repeat customers, according to Kobilarcik, as well as plenty of new faces. In addition to Valentine’s Day gifts, there were birthday shoppers and, of course, fans of chocolate.
She hopes the weekend sales are a sign of better times to come. Lately, she said, “people seem a little less conservative” than they have been in the past few years. “They’re starting to open up their pocketbooks.”
After a full day of sales and chocolates, the downtown shoppers seemed to turn to the restaurants for that chocolate fix, including the Germania Chocolate Cake featured at the City Square Steakhouse on South Market Street.
According to owner Mike Mariola, the cake – named for Germania Hall, where the restaurant is located – is quickly becoming a fan favorite.
The secret? Mariola credits the use of organic eggs and the best chocolate around. It makes for a very rich, very dense, chocolate lovers delight. And, he added, “like all our desserts, (it is) made with love, in-house from scratch, not a box mix or frozen cake.”