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Photo courtesy Miss Maude’s Bar of Chocolates
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Photo courtesy Miss Maude’s Bar of Chocolates
Miss Maude’s Bar of Chocolates
Established: February 2018
Owner: Jessica Leonard
“Why isn’t there one bar with more than one flavor?” This was the unanswered question that drove Miss Maude’s owner Jessica Leonard to set out and create her own. While living in New York City, where she previously held a pastry internship at Manhattan’s Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park, she connected with a third-generation chocolatier in Coney Island, sought out custom molds and worked with a former culinary instructor to develop recipes. “People said, ‘You’re absolutely crazy — this will take too much time, do not do it,’ ” Leonard recalls. Naysayers be silenced. The 40-year-old recently landed her bars — each of which has eight distinct pieces — in Bloomingdale’s stores and on out-of-the-ordinary gift site uncommongoods.com, released her current selections in milk chocolate varieties, and has a boozy bourbon-themed, luxury-inspired bar on the way. “I definitely have not seen anyone do anything at all like us,” Leonard says of her products, which include the Theater Bar, including cola and blue-raspberry sour gummy squares, and the Apres Ski, which features the flavors of fondue, s’mores and a hot toddy.
Photo by Eileen Daniel courtesy JC Desserts
JC Desserts
Established: February 2021
Owner: Justin Ross
JC Desserts founder and Richmond native Justin Ross admits he’s always had a sweet tooth. After attending Johnson & Wales culinary school, he worked at luxury West Virginia resort The Greenbrier, and then the original Norman Love Confections, an internationally renowned chocolate-making institution in Fort Myers, Florida. Working alongside master chocolatier and pastry chef John Cook, Ross found his niche. “My goal was to come back to Richmond, to bring whatever I learned or gained,” Ross says of the experience. “The level of excellence — everything was high octane, very precise, very demanding.” On Valentine’s Day 2021, he launched his business, which currently operates out of Hatch Kitchen. Ross creates chic miniature works of edible art, and the jewel-like treats come in four-, nine- and 16-piece collections. Fillings range from strawberry — whose exterior resembles a cartoon mushroom — to Cuban coffee. In addition, he makes elegant entremet cakes and pastries. “I always saw myself as more of a pastry chef but wanted to offer chocolate because people are familiar with it, … but [JC Desserts is] transforming into me becoming a chocolatier, whether by accident or fate,” Ross says. For the holidays, JC Desserts will offer “Elf Boxes” stocked with everything from cream puffs to chocolate bark.
Photo by Susan Kalergis courtesy Gearharts Fine Chocolates
Gearharts Fine Chocolates
Established: October 2001
Owner: Tim Gearhart
Charlottesville native and Virginia chocolate pioneer Tim Gearhart appreciates the craft of chocolate-making. A pastry chef by trade, after culinary school Gearhart landed in the kitchens of small, higher-end restaurants such as the Charlottesville institution Hamiltons. Back then, he says, “artisan chocolate was kind of a newish thing.” While there were stores selling candy and fudge, fine chocolate-focused competition was scarce. In 2001, he debuted his namesake shop on Charlottesville's Downtown Mall, and 10 years later, he opened a second location in Richmond. “I liked the idea of bringing something different and not run of the mill, and a little more European kind of feeling,” Gearhart says, “and so we had a pretty good feeling from the beginning [that] we were on to something, and very quickly it took off.” In its first holiday season as a business, Gearharts had to open a kiosk at the mall in order to accommodate space for production and retail. Most recipes have remained the same, and after two decades, Gearhart balances staying true to his signature line and introducing fun new additions such as the Lucha Crunch Bar, which features “half-popped” popcorn enrobed in chile rojo-kissed chocolate and fresh lime caramel.
The s’mores bar from River City Chocolate (Photo courtesy River City Chocolate)
River City Chocolate
Established: May 2013
Owner: Ed Conroy
Growing up in Brooklyn and Queens, New York, Ed Conroy of River City Chocolate spent a lot of time baking cookies, cakes and brownies with his grandmother. But it was during his wedding reception at Havana ’59 in Richmond that his current business would find its spark. During the event, the owner approached Conroy to ask who made the desserts. “We did,” the groom replied. “He asked to try some, and then at the end of the night asked for our card,” Conroy recalls. “River City Chocolate was born.” Initially operating the business as a side hustle and focusing on chocolate specifically, Conroy eventually quit his full-time finance job. Since then, RCC has landed large clients such as the Omni hotel chain and had its treats served to luminaries including former President Barack Obama. The family-run operation, which includes Conroy’s mother on staff, serves a little bit of everything, including decadent s’mores bars with a Swiss meringue fluff instead of marshmallow, half-pound slices of cake with cream cheese centers and fudge-like brownie-meets-cookie creations dubbed brookies, about which Conroy says, “If I picked this up and threw that at the wall right now, it would stick.” Find RCC baked goods at its shop and at local restaurants such as Wild Ginger and Charred, and, perhaps in the near future, through national distribution.
