New York's Best Chocolate Shops

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, we’ve got one thing on our mind: chocolate. Of course, we’re choco-holics year-round, but the holiday is a great excuse to stop at some of our favorite shops. What we’ve discovered this year is that chocolatiers keep raising the bar with terrifically imaginative flavor combinations, including Kee’s jasmine truffles and Thai-inspired dark chocolate.  If you’re feeling exotic, you might want to try La Maison Du Chocolat’s Arneguy truffle, flavored with cardamom and almond paste.  You could even make a date out of visiting one of the oldest shops in the city where they make the truffles right in front of you. If you’re single, it’s even better because you don’t have to share. In fact, some of the candy is so good that you may not even want to share a box.

Kee’s
Address: 452 Fifth Ave. (inside HSBC);  80 Thompson St., nr. Spring St.
Phone: (212) 334-3285; (212) 525-6099
Kee Ling Tong is a true truffle artisan. She makes all of her exquisite chocolates by hand in her tiny Soho shop. Her creme brulee truffle is legendary around town, but we get most excited by her Asian-inflected flavors. Take for instance the Jasmine, a blend of rich dark chocolate, cream and fragrant Jasmine tea-leaves or the dark chocolate truffle, which is infused with lemongrass ganache and mint.

La Maison Du Chocolat
Address: 1018 Madison Ave.; 30 Rockefeller Center; 63 Wall St.
Phone: (212) 744-7117; (212)265-9404; (212)952-1123
After sampling chocolate made by this Paris-based company, you’ll  never want to go back to Hershey’s kisses.  There’s haute cuisine and then there’s haute truffles.  La Maison Du Chocolat makes some blissfully layered and complex chocolates. One of our favorites is the Arneguy, a dark chocolate ganache, flavored with citrus, cardamom and almond paste. A box of those would win over our hearts any day of the week.

Martine’s
Address: 400 East 82nd St.
Phone: (212) 744-6289
Sure, Martine’s is a great place to shop for Valentine’s Day gifts, but more importantly, it’s a great spot for a Valentine’s date. That’s because the chocolatiers at this Upper East Side store make their candy right in front of the customers.  Really, what’s more romantic than that?  You can sample the chocolates by the piece, but it’s pretty hard to resist a whole box. For Feb. 14^th, we plan on investing in their heart-shaped truffles, which are laced with coffee or raspberry.   If you’re honey is fond of flowers, you might consider the chocolate heart bouquet. 

 

Jacques Torres
Address: Various locations including 350 Hudson St., btwn Charlton & King Sts.

mrchocolate.com
Jacques Torres may be the city’s most well-known chocolatier and for good reason. His creations are classic and irresistible, from chocolate covered
ginger candies to coffee-infused chocolate bars. For Valentine’s Day, he’s got some wonderful gift sets, including a box filled with heart-shaped bon bons.

Bouchon Bakery
Address: 10 Columbus Circle, at 59th St.
Phone: (212) 823-9366
This Columbus Circle café is best known for its stand-out pastries, but the chocolates are some of the best in the city, too.  Bouchon’s dark chocolate ganache candies are too good to share, so we’re buying them for ourselves and giving our significant others the signature and really rich chocolate bouchons.

Dylan’s Candy Bar
Address: 1011 Third Ave., at 60th Street
Phone: (646) 735-0078
We really do feel like kids in this Upper East Side candy store, a veritable candy Wonderland.  While the selection can be slightly overwhelming, we recommend you head downstairs to the hocolate department for a four-truffle box, which includes chocolate butter cream and pink champagne.

Li-Lac Chocolates
Address: 40 Eighth Ave., btwn. Eighth & Jane Sts.; Lexington
& 43rd Sts. (Grand Central Terminal)
Phone: (212) 924-2280; (212) 370-4866
Way back in 1923, New Yorkers couldn’t buy wine, at least legally, on Valentine’s Day, but they could pick up a box of Li-Lac chocolates.  This store is one of the oldest in the city and still making not only some of our favorite chocolates, including the chocolate-covered raisins, orange peel and marzipan squares. Still, we can’t forget the fudge, which is one of the best deals in town.  For $22, you get an assortment of classic flavors like chocolate hazelnut and peanut butter.

The Chocolate Bar
Address: 19 Eighth Ave., near W. 12th Street
Phone: (212) 366-1541
If you’re feeling nostalgic or even patriotic, this West Village shop specializes in Americana flavors and combinations, like their signature, dark-chocolate covered peanut butter and jelly bar, which tastes like the best PB&J sandwich we’ve ever had.  But for something a tad more refined, The Chocolate Bar also features bon-bons, including a salted caramel variety. (*** add what else here)

Vosges
Address: 132 Spring St., btwn. Wooster & Greene St.; 1100 Madison
Ave., btwn 83rd & 84th Sts.
Phone: (212) 625-2929; (212) 717-2929
This French chocolatier can do no wrong, at least in our eyes.  It’s nearly impossible to choose between their vast array of chocolates, like the spicy hot chocolate or the
chile-flecked chocolate bars. This year, we have our heart set on the dark chocolate truffles from the “Exotic Collection,” which features ingredients from all over the world. The box even suggests clever and sometimes, quirky, chocolate-pairings, like Tallegio cheese and paprika.  And trust us, they both work.

Mondel
Address: 2913 Broadway, nr. 113th Street
Phone: (212) 864-2111
Mondel is another classic New York shop that’s been open since 1943 and amazingly still makes most of its products right in the store.  They’re famous for their chocolate turtles, almond bark and butter crunch.  Our absolute favorite offering is the chocolate mousse: a chocolate shell with very velvety, whipped chocolate inside. You can get a whole box of these ethereal morsels in dark, white and milk varieties.