The Best Damned Chocolate in Chicago

Feeding a man chocolate is like showing the Mona Lisa to a dog. He will look at it. He may eat it. He may pee on it. He may even try to mate with it, but he will never be able to appreciate chocolate the way a woman does. Happily, some chocolate is so good, it transcends the gender inequity in chocolate enjoyment. That chocolate is made by a little store buried on the north side of Chicago, called bon bon.

The girlfriend and I found out about bon bon last May when the Chicago Reader wrote a short piece about the shop. (I'd link you, but it would cost you $1.95 to read the article.) Always looking for a new place to satisfy our sweet tooths, and disappointed with high-end chocolate shops like Moonstruck, the girlfriend and I dropped by bon bon early last summer. What we saw, and tasted, blew us away.

For one, the chocolates themselves look gorgeous. These chocolates ain't Hershey's Kisses; chocolates shaped like pyramids, jewels, Buddha, King Tut, et al are all pleasant to the eye. The flavors are even more creative than the shapes. The red heart chocolate, for example, is filled with a white ganache flavored with Chai tea spices. The dark chocolate pyramid, one of my favorites, contains chilis and cinnamon, an odd combination that somehow works. The girlfriend's favorite is the golden King Tut, a milk couverature with caramel flavored with pear brandy. Curry, anise, pistachio paste, honey and lavender, and ginger are all bon bon chocolate fillings, and all are good. For those with more conventional tastes, bon bon sells chocolates made with nothing more than the French and Belgian couverture used in all their products. But they still look damned good.

The prices are what you'd expect from high-end chocolate. Last week, the girlfriend and I bought a 12-piece assortment for Valentine's Day. Cost: $18.00, or $1.50 a piece, not including tax. Although expensive, it's not much more expensive than other high-end chocolates like Godiva or Moonstruck.

If you live in the Chicago area and starving for chocolate, drop on by this little shop. If you'd rather eat Hershey's Kisses, you might as well be pissing on a painting. The store is located at 5410 N. Clark Street; call 773-784-9882 for store hours.