Chocolate Dream Box – a Los Gatos Treasure!
Chocolate Dream Box has been a part of the Los Gatos landscape, in one location or another, for many years. It first opened in downtown along North Santa Cruz Avenue, then was located on Los Gatos Boulevard and Blossom Hill Road at King’s Court Shopping Center, and now calls The Downing Center (at the corner of Union & Los Gatos-Almaden Road) home.
Today I stopped in to see the new shop, to buy a gourmet chocolate gift and see how the owner, Holly Westbrook, and staff are doing. I’d blogged about it in 2011, back at the old location, and thought an update was in order, too, for their new location (and my blog’s new location).
Things seem to be great overall. The new store is bigger and brighter than the former one was and feels comfortably roomy. The decor is always beautiful, with a hint of Europe here and there to remind visitors of the inspiration.
What’s selling? Old favorites, such as the dark and milk chocolate cats, can still be found, and as always, there’s an abundance of specialty candies and exceptionally beautiful and tasty truffles. There are non-candy gift items too, pretty affordably priced also. Today I saw a pewter fleur de lis that was quite tempting…
The move was, of course, a lot of work for them, and if you’re local, you know that they hadn’t wanted to move but got forced out by their former landlord. Any business owner would be concerned about losing customers with a new location, but I imagine in time everyone will find their way to the new shop – it’s only 1.5 miles away from the old one. An unexpected element, though, happened too – the Yelp reviews from the old location could not transfer to the new one – ouch! If you are a fan, cruise on over there and give them a shout out. I did that today; it’s great to support our local Los Gatos businesses!
Truffles, truffles, and more truffles. The biggest problem with visiting the Chocolate Dream Box is figuring out which one(s) to buy! (more…)
