Chris and Kristi Preston’s culinary mission can best be described has bringing the true experience of chocolate to its grateful customers. Says Chris, “Chocolate makes people happy, and when you have a high quality chocolate, you enjoy the experience even more.”
You don’t really need directions to The Chocolat Bar. If you are anywhere on Bannock between 8th and 9th, just follow your nose. For the olfactory-challenged, you’ll find The Chocolat Bar at 805 W. Banncok – which is also where you’ll meet its owners, Chris Preston and Kristi Echols-Preston.
The story of The Chocolat Bar is truly a love story. After all, even if you don’t believe in romance, you sure as heck can believe in chocolate. And as it turns out, the story of how The Chocolat Bar came to be is the story of two people who fell in with one another as well as with chocolate.
Chris and Kristi met through the Nature Conservancy in New Mexico, where Chris was on the Board of Directors and Kristi was a biologist. Chris recalls his wife-to-be with this anecdote: “You know how in every office there is always someone who has chocolate on his or her desk? That was Kristi.” Ironically, Chris grew up in a non-chocolate eating family.
Kristi lost her job due to downsizing, and with few opportunities in New Mexico for a biologist, she did what any unemployed science major would do: she apprenticed with a chocolate shop in Santa Fe. “They liked her so much that they let her start doing product development,” Chris recalls. “And I started eating chocolate.”
Kristi and Chris had been coming to Idaho for years to fly fish and vacation, and they fell in love with Boise. In 2003, Chris made the fateful decision to leave a career in finance to open a chocolate store with his wife in the City of Trees.
The Chocolat Bar’s success flows from Chris and Kristi’s love of cooking. Says Chris, “we both love to cook, and we feel that the best food lets its ingredients shine. Our goal is to not do anything in the cooking process to overshadow the quality of the ingredients.” They also buy their cocoa from Guitards, a century-old chocolate maker in California.
Chris and Kristi’s culinary mission can best be described has bringing the true experience of chocolate to its grateful customers. “Chocolate makes people happy, and when you have a high quality chocolate, you enjoy the experience even more. We use 100 percent chocolate with high cocoa content and all the cocoa butter that should be there to create a quality experience,” says Chris. Sadly, he notes that the opposite trend is taking place among the large commercial chocolate producers.
Beyond the quality of the ingredients it uses, what makes The Chocolat Bar such a delight is the creativity of its products. “Kristi will wake up in the middle of the night with new ideas for ingredient combinations,” says Chris. “Rather than letting me mow down the lavender in our garden with the weed whacker, she used it to make our Lemon and Lavender white chocolate – one of our most popular creations.”
So, how has the experience of being downtown Boise’s artisan chocolate manufacturer been? Chris just smiles. “We really feel the community has embraced us. We’ve become friends with many of our customers, and that’s just not something you think of happening in most businesses. I really think this is the best city in America to start this kind of business.” But then, how can you not love people who make great chocolate?
