Chocolate Walk 2009 Part 4

Today is the final section of your Chocolate Priestess's report on the Chocolate Walk she and the Chocolate Coconut Acolyte went to this past weekend on November 14, 2009.  Please do leave comments on this report and let me know if you have any questions.

We stopped at the Artist Colony shops, which I covered in Part 3, and assessed our time, energy, and apetite.  Now you may think that free chocolate related samples from 30 places is great until you actually are walking, getting them, and eating them.  We knew we had to keep going on this Pilgrimage and those never supposed to be easy but push your physically and spiritually, but we reasoned if we could, we'd wait to eat the rest of the samples later.

We walked west on Franklin Street to find the Daily Grind and this was my second unpleasant experience of the Walk.  By 3pm the city was packed with people and wherever we went we encountered groups of walkers, shoppers, and tourists.  I understand that people who arrived late were confused and store/restaurant owners were getting tired.  While our venture into the coffee house was fine, a mother and her daughter, clearly late comers and unsure of what to do made an error, had to be sent back to get their check card marked but there more oddly were rather loudly told "you can't sit inside, that's against the rules".   Most other places had some sort of seating arraignment either inside or outside and while the event over all could have used more seating, it worked particularly well before the crowds built up.  I looked through the walk booklet and saw no such rules.  Therefore I have to wonder what made this shop owner react this way and I can tell you his public chastising of this mom and kid didn't make a positive impression on me.  All of this fuss for three chocolate covered coffee beans I'll let the new Mocha Acolyte tell me about.

We went a bit south into Calvin Place and found Schwab's Fudge, who offered us Sacraments before, had set out a table with samples of their Jack Daniels fudge.  Since I'd all ready revealed that I did not get another sample.  I simply did not need it and I was exercise our values of Moderation and Purposefulness by choosing to not consume it again.  The product as you may recall is amazing.  This is a photogarph of the store's sign so you can find it but they did a wise thing by setting their samples outside.  The weather permitted it and this freed the store space to focus on sales to consumers I saw walking in and out.  We also did a quick run to a candle store nearby.

Further along Franklin we came to Fine Line Rustics/Café Interlude in Franklin Square. Nashville is full of these little shop collectives which can be confusing to first timers but the map helped a lot as did the big numbered signs for the event.  The Third Tier Cakery was the chocolatier inside and they offered two truffle samples: chocolate peanut butter (I had) and white raspberry (mavido had).  The volutneers inside were very friendly and the store was delightful as was the cat outside but we had to keep moving along.

We went south two blocks to Washington Street and then headed east to hit the #9 location: Nashville Fudge Kitchen, another chocolatier you may remember, Sisters and Brothers, from my Labor Day weekend adventure and reviews.  They have a wide selection of fudge and offered hand-dipped caramels by this time in the day which were very soft and chew by the time I got it home as well as tangy and chocolaty.  They also have a ton of flavored popcorn as well.

The last three locations were in the Coachlight Square area beteween Van Buren, Washington, and Schoolhouse Lane.  The first was another Bloomington import: the Chocolate Emporium which I used to visit monthly when I had meetings downdown.  They had tiny gold-foil wrapped truffles that were very dark and packed an immediate buzz when I tried it later.  This was by the Bone Appetit store that has dog treats including safe "chocolate" ones for your pets.  Sorry, I didn't get a photograph here though I cannot honestly remember why I didn't take one.

Our next top was at Chateau Thomas which is primarily a winery, wine tasting view.  They had live music and didn't mind us stopping to listen, enjoy  the samples from the Story Inn, a flourless chocolate torte, and use their facility.  The musicians were two men playing guitars and a young girl playing a mean fiddle so this was a pleasant stop that could of lured us to end our journey but we had one more location to visit just across the open courtyard.

Holy Cow is a steakhouse, a rather large one, and I can't say anything about it because I've never eaten there.  It was large inside and we had to go through it to find the Chocolate Walk offering which was a peanut butter truffle again and not the Grandma's Chocolate Chip Cookie listed in the booklet.  The offering tasted good but this highlights a reoccurring problem during the Walk: the booklet was out of sync with the chocolatiers at least 25% of the time.

Now it was after 4pm and we headed back to mavido's car and back to my place to relax before she headed to her own home.  I pushed through and ate the sample I brought home so I could report on them for you all.  Then, quite honestly, I didn't crave chocolate for a few days.  The event was fun and it earned a lot of money for the Brown County Humane Society.  Mavido and I hope we can do it again next year and we hope a few of you will join us.

Sisters and Brothers, may you too take the time to slowly appreciate what the Divine and human ingenuity have offered you in chocolate.