On Third Street in Geneva, Illinois, a few weeks ago, we went looking for something cold to drink, since it was a warm day. A place called Coffee, Cones & Cabernet looked like it might provide something refreshing, and it did: iced coffee for Yuriko and lemonade – really good lemonade – for me. We weren’t in the market for the cone or cabernet part of the equation at that moment, but I’m sure everything else there is good, or better, certainly to look at the racks of chocolates behind glass or smell the aroma produced with the grind of a coffee maker.
When selling luxury comestibles, retailers are at risk of a posh sameness, but there was absolutely no risk of that here. We’d stepped into the former All Chocolate Kitchen, whose legacy includes a display of sculptures around the shop: a life-sized depiction of Neil Armstrong in his moon suit, a dinosaur, a peacock, a New Orleans jazz man, and more, all made of chocolate and sugar.
The centerpiece chocolate sculpture is an enormous tree, “Chef Roby’s Enchanted Tree, ” lording over the customer seating area at center of the shop.
A thing of awe: 1,200 pounds of dark, milk and white chocolate, 23 feet tall and three feet in diameter. You know, as big as an actual tree. Chocolate isn’t usually accorded such permanence. I know I don’t think of it that way.
No samples, please.
Sugar is also a medium at this unusual gallery.
The shop changed hands only in November, when an employee, Marissa Kirch, bought the business from Chef Alain Roby and his wife Esther Roby when they retired.
Apparently we’d happened onto the work of Chef Roby, as famed a pastry chef as that profession has, at least to judge by his fairly long list of accomplishments and the fact that I don’t know much about that particular world. If for some reason he isn’t as famed in that world as I think he is, he should be.
“Coffee, Cones, & Cabernet continues to adhere to the recipes of Chef Alain Roby and the previous business and employees of All Chocolate Kitchen,” the shop web site says. Chef Alain Roby is a three-time Guinness World Record holder, a world-renowned pastry chef, and an author who has made multiple appearances on the Food Network and The Martha Stewart Show.”
Being on the Food Network or rating an entry (or three! including world’s longest candy cane) in Guinness World Records is all well and good, but I’d say the grand scope of Roby’s talent is nowhere more apparent than the shop itself. We can start small – which isn’t small at all, considering the effort that must have gone into it – and work up from there.
A 50-lb. sugar peacock.
A dinosaur behind electrified bars. I’m sure you’d get an unpleasant but mild shock, but even so that’s a first at a chocolate shop. Or any kind of shop. I didn’t test it.
Neil Armstrong, bold explorer, done in white chocolate. Looking a little unnerving close up, to be honest, but still, quite the work.
Says blues in the background, but I’m reminded of jazz.
An homage to the shop itself, in sugar and food coloring.
We lounged around a little while, savoring our respective beverages, and enjoying the fact that the shop was about 15 degrees F. cooler than the outside. It occurred to me that the HVAC system has to work flawlessly during the summer. I hope it continues to do so for many summers to come.