Boutique chocolatier set to offer artisanal experience in Rockridge after setbacks
The Xocolate Bar is the latest addition to College Avenue’s growing sweets and treats scene. The storefront at 5854 College Ave. in Oakland’s Rockridge District features a hand-painted sign outside and is anticipated to have double the square footage of their Solano Avenue location.
Dan Hernandez / Journalism 300, SF State
Along a busy and vibrant College Avenue, the street best known for its crafty shops and prized eateries, a new confectionery is set open in the neighbourhood.
The Xocolate Bar will open its second store at 5854 College Ave, joining a burgeoning scene of chocolatiers and sweet treat vendors in Rockridge. But setbacks along the way to opening have curved plans for a grand opening date and for its ability to operate.
Malena Lopez-Maggi is the owner and founder of the Xocolate Bar, an artisanal chocolate store that crafts a unique spin on products ranging from candy bars and truffles to bold creations like chocolate salami and white chocolate brie.
She founded the business back in 2006. Since then, she’s been operating from their current storefront at 1709 Solano Ave. in Berkeley where Lopez-Maggi and her team of chocolatiers have been manufacturing, shipping and selling products from.
Now, the Xocolate Bar has its focus set on opening a second location in Rockridge.
“When I walked into that place, I was like ‘This is it. This is where we need to be,’” Lopez-Maggi said. The upcoming shop in Rockridge was the perfect find for Lopez-Maggi. The new space is anticipated to have nearly double the square footage of their current Solano Avenue location.
“It feels like this is the right place for us,” she said. She and her team chose Rockridge as their second outpost for the familiarity with their client base. Businesses such as Zachary’s Pizza, Barney’s and Shoes on Solano have locations on both Solano and College Avenues and anticipates that local shoppers will have similar tastes.
Vendors like The Chocolate Dragon and Market Hall on College Avenue already carry some of the Xocolate Bar’s products. The strategic placing of the Xocolate Bar’s second store will allow for staff to be split between both locations and to work in conjunction with the local vendors to stock certain products. Lopez-Maggi anticipates that this approach will help increase the potential foot traffic.
But the Rockridge location has yet to open. Lopez-Maggi noted that bureaucratic setbacks held up the opening date which was projected for September 1.
Alameda County put Lopez-Maggi in a limbo of frustration over how she would be able to operate her shop when multiple health inspectors gave her different directives on what needed to be up to code.
“One of the main reasons that I signed this lease was because the health department was going to allow us to be a retail only concept, meaning that we could just take the existing infrastructure and open without having to build anything out,” she said. She signed a 10-year lease for the retail space.
Her initial proposal to the county presented that the Xocolate Bar was going to be a retail-only space where they would sell prepackaged candies and give out samples. Here, they would also operate the shipping portion of the business and have a freezer to keep stock of their confectionary.
The health department returned after reviewing her plans citing that upgrades to the existing space would be needed in order for her to pass inspection. Upgrades included a mop sink with a specific type of faucet, a water heater and new flooring material that would be up to code.
“We had to scramble to in order to be compliant and it just slowed us way down,” she said. The materials took time to source, and the labour incurred extra costs to the business, Lopez-Maggi explained. The Xocolate Bar used crowdfunding and sold gift cards as bonds to help them get on track to opening.
On Friday, Lopez-Maggi received word from the county that they have the green light to open business when they are ready. But only after she was told by the county that they, in fact, did not need to require all the upgrades as it was an error in classifying the business.
“It’s like they don't want us to survive. Every week it's a miracle, it's getting to be very precarious,” she said.
Now it is a race to the opening. Finishing touches are in the works as they begin to move product and stage the shop for retail with a projected soft opening date in the coming weeks. “Whether that's humanly possible is to be determined,” Lopez-Maggi said.
“Kind of like putting frosting on a cake, right?” said Frances Fernandez. She’s the project manager that’s overseeing the Rockridge store’s progress and working alongside Lopez-Maggi to get the shop to its opening date. Fernandez describes the process, “It’s like peeling an onion. You know there's layers and layers and it's never as easy as it seems.”
Fernandez has known Lopez-Maggi for 20 years and worked with her since the opening of the Xocolate Bar’s Solano Avenue location. Now, she’s helping the design of the Rockridge store to be more than just another chocolate retailer.
The expanded space will feature products from other artisan confectioneries and use the backroom as a gallery for artists to have showcases. There is a mezzanine level that will host a space for arts and crafts as well.
Fernandez wants to see the Xocolate Bar become a community center that attracts people to come to College Avenue for the sweets experience. With neighboring stores such as See’s Candies, Leonida’s and The Chocolate Dragon, she and Lopez-Maggi think that they will see success in bringing more people to the stores.
“All of us have carved out a specific niche and I feel like we can work together to put College Avenue on the map,” Lopez-Maggi said.
“When you have a successful business, you know to spread your wings,” Fernandez said. “I'm confident this is a good fit, a good neighborhood and good fit.”
The Xocolate Bar is set to have its grand opening on October 28 if the soft opening phase goes according to plan.