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May 16, 2007

ASBURY PARK PRESS

LBI'S HER SWEET SPOT

Island No. 1 in the heart of Chocolate Bar creator

By Matt Pais
Manahawkin Bureau

BEACH HAVEN — If you took Willy Wonka's imaginative sweet tooth, mixed it with Johnny Appleseed's initiative and Donald Trump's entrepreneurship, the end result might very well be Alison Nelson.

Six years ago, the Queens native opened The Chocolate Bar in New York City's West Village, with the goal of providing high-quality sweets in a laid-back environment. She opened another boutique here last summer and found out the market for decadent treats extends far beyond Manhattan.

"Yes, it's upscale as far as the type of chocolate, but it's a place you can come in wearing flip-flops and a T-shirt and still be comfortable," she said. "We were very well received on Long Beach Island."

So well-received that after one summer season, Nelson moved the LBI store 500 feet north on Centre Street to take over the former home of Faria's Surf Shop. The move adds 1,800 square feet to the bar.

"We realized last summer that people were really looking for a place to sit and stay and eat, but in the place we had, we couldn't offer that," she said.

Beginning Memorial Day weekend, the new location kicks off a seven-day-a-week, year-round operation offering the same kind of all-chocolate menu that drew customers in droves last year.

"We went through four tons of chocolate. That sounds like a lot, but we're going to do even more now," she said.

The success of The Chocolate Bar's initial season should come as no surprise, says Rick Reynolds, executive director of the Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce.

"I think, to a degree, there's a good marketplace on Long Beach Island for that kind of upscale business because it's such an upscale marketplace," he said.

Reynolds said he heard only positive reviews of the store's unique chocolate-intensive menu.

"I think its something that lends itself very well to vacation time," he said.

Nelson credits much of the business' success to a partnership with Lakewood-based Astor chocolates, a company that makes all the store's custom chocolate bars, the latest being "Graffiti" — a series wrapped in designer art.

"It comes in 10 flavors and all the wrappers are designed by graffiti artists," Nelson said. "It's a really beautiful, visual line."

Though a commercial success, the initial expansion to Long Beach Island was a strictly personal venture, Nelson said.

"My family is from Rockaway Beach, and it's hard when you've grown up so close to nature to be in New York City in the summer. You get homesick," she said.

When her family opened up the Steal Away Bed and Breakfast in Beach Haven nine years ago, Nelson began making frequent trips across the Route 72 causeway and found herself wanting to spend more time at the Shore.

A location just blocks away from the ocean now makes it possible for her to take a working vacation every weekend.

"I have two kids, and this is a way to kind of give them the same experiences I had," she said. "It was kind of a selfish decision, but it's worked out."

The success of two bars in New York — a third Chocolate Bar opened in the chic clothing store Henri Bendel earlier this year — as well as the location here prompted Nelson to turn the business into a global brand.

Last year, she signed an agreement with Dubai-based NewCo, a restaurant development firm, to create as many as 30 Chocolate Bars in Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries.

There are also negotiations to install a Chocolate Bar in a Toronto hotel next year. That proposed location is likely to be a hybrid chocolate boutique and spirits bar.

No matter how big The Chocolate Bar brand grows, however, the location here will always have a special place in Nelson's heart.

"I absolutely love to get out of the hustle and bustle," she said. "I love to show up with my kids, a stroller and a whole lot of chocolate."