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We’re hiring!

September 26, 2012 by

I hope you’ve seen the updates and know that our space on Valencia is looking beautiful! We still have so much work to do, but we met at our new space this morning and I couldn’t be more excited.

There are lots of preparations to be done before we open and I know there will be plenty of late nights. But, one of the things we need most is a pastry chef. We need someone to whip our pastry kitchen into shape. We’ve gathered ideas for our cafe offerings over the past few months and even had a decadent chocolate breakfast as a trial run. But, we need an experienced pastry chef to lead the way. I’ve listed the full job description below. If you’re interested, we’d like to see your resume and a short draft of a proposed menu. The menu need only be your first thoughts.

We’ll hire for other positions in a few weeks, but we need to focus our efforts on a pastry chef at the moment. When we have other positions available, I’ll put them up on our blog as well!

Please contact jobs@dandelionchocolate.com.

Responsibilities

  • Designing recipes and plating for an inventive, chocolate-focused menu to include pastries, a suite of hot chocolates, and specialty desserts
  • Costing, sourcing, and ordering the ingredients necessary to execute the menu
  • Vetting the menu with the public and making alterations in preparation for opening
  • Running the daily operation of our pastry kitchen, including managing any future support staff
  • Soliciting feedback about menu on a regular basis, then refining and innovating offerings
  • Contributing feedback to our chocolate makers to help them to produce an outstanding product for baked goods and confections

Requirements

  • Passion for working with chocolate
  • Must have 3 years of experience leading a pastry kitchen
  • Demonstrates inventive uses of ingredients and a strong aesthetic sense
  • Ready to lead a kitchen with a positive, enthusiastic attitude

Cynthia’s famous!

July 16, 2012 by

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to give Cynthia a ride to and from the Mission Community Market. I stayed for a minute and quickly realized that she has a whole set of regulars who know her by name. She does a fantastic job at the market, meeting the people who will be our neighbors when we move to Valencia. Apparently the staff of MCM thinks so too. We were the “vendor of the week” yesterday, and the folks of MCM posted a really sweet note about Cynthia. They also published her recipe for strawberry nib salad. Personally, I’m excited to know that Cynthia bartered our chocolate for roasted almonds and promises to make her chocolate-covered almonds for snacks at the factory!

Neighbors, new and old

July 3, 2012 by

We’ve been pretty busy for the past few weeks making lots of chocolate for a very large order. But, we’re done(!) and looking forward to the rest of the summer. The opening of our space on Valencia is on the horizon and we’re doing lots of planning and prepping. It’s exciting and terrifying that the space will be ready within the next few months!

In addition, we’re working with our neighbors in the Mission and our neighbors in the Dogpatch on two great events this month. We’ll be teaming up with 18 Reasons and Pete Slosberg (of Pete’s Wicked Ale and Cocoa Pete’s) to host a beer and chocolate tasting on July 25 from 7-9 PM at 18 Reasons, 3674 18th Street. We’ll talk about the overlap between the processes of making the two foods and taste how well they work together. Tickets are available here.

We’ll also be showing off our current kitchen space as part of SF Made‘s Dogpatch factory tour on July 13 from 2-4 PM. On the tour, guests will stop by Maison de Monaco, Barbary Brix, Sutton Cellars, and our factory. It’s a great area, full of small businesses making beautiful products, and SF Made will make a perfect tour guide. Tickets for this event are available here.

We hope you can make it one of the two events, we’re looking forward to both!

A pattern panoply

May 14, 2012 by

Not too long ago, we dove into the project of designing paper to wrap our bars. We all pulled together our favorite inspiration images, and then Elaine and I set off to work designing patterns with the help of two incredibly talented graphic designers. I trekked to Austin to meet with one of our graphic designers and spent a number of days sketching repeated organic shapes at my desk. Elaine also excitedly poured hours into the project. About a month later, we have more fantastic patterns than we know what to do with.

Todd, Cam, Elaine, and I held the “pattern games” and let the patterns go head-to-head. We chose our favorites and are ready to place an order, hopefully before monsoon season strikes our printer in India. All told, I think we’re well on our way to having our own Dandelion-designed paper!

It’s open!

May 11, 2012 by

After many months, our online store is open! We shut our store down in December in order to keep up with our growing wholesale demand. At the time, we were struggling with our temperer and working hard to grow our production while our demand continues to increase. It feels pretty momentous to open the store again. We’ve made great strides with our production pipeline in the past few months. Cam’s taken on the role of production manager and has been busy whipping us into shape. He makes an epically long to-do list for us every morning and puts it on our chalkboard. After a few long days in February, we threatened to get him a smaller chalkboard with less room to pile on tasks. But, instead, we rose to the challenge of cranking out bars.

We’ve made a few other process improvements as well. Caitlin’s now an expert temperer, meaning there are extra hands to help make bars. Cam created a timer for our roaster. We now hear the Oompa Loompa song from Willy Wonka every time another round of beans is done. Todd and Greg have been working overtime on our cracker. And, the rest of us are pitching in as well. All these things together mean that we have bars on hand and are ready to sell them in our online store.

If you click over to our store, you’ll find our bars from Madagascar, Colombia, and Ocumare along with gift sets and tickets to our Chocolate 101 classes. We’ve also included a note about shipping in the warm summer weather. We have to be careful with our bars in the heat, so we’ll only ship out orders on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. We’ll take every precaution we can, but if you receive bars that have suffered in the heat, please let us know and we’ll happily replace them.

In the past few months, we received a few emails from chocolate lovers eager to buy our bars and we’re happy that you all now have ready access. Thanks for waiting!

 

Construction update – Week 2

May 10, 2012 by

Things are moving along quickly. Dirt’s flying and our plumber’s laid pipes with incredible attention to detail.

And, we found our own buried treasure- rubble from the 1906 earthquake!

We’re teaching Chocolate 101 again on May 31 at our production kitchen in the Dogpatch. There are still a few tickets available in our online store. I hope you can join us!

Construction update – Week 1!

April 30, 2012 by

There’s movement! We got our first update from our project manager, George, and our foreman, Ed, on Friday. The construction of our factory on Valencia Street is underway. We’ve been waiting a long time and it’s incredibly exciting to see the space start to come to life. We’ll keep you updated, but you can also check out all the photos on our flickr page.

We’re teaching Chocolate 101 again on May 31 at our production kitchen in the Dogpatch. There are still a few tickets available in our online store. I hope you can join us!

Back out on Bartlett Street

April 10, 2012 by

We have 3 more pairs of hands around the chocolate factory these days, and they’re all pretty fantastic. Caitlin joined us in January and Natalie and Cynthia have been helping out for the past few weeks. All together, we make a great chocolate-making team.

You’ll have a chance to meet Cynthia this Thursday at the first Mission Community Market of the season. She’ll be there every Thursday evening, with help from the rest of us, from 4-8 PM on Bartlett Street between 21st and 22nd. The Mission Community Market is one of our favorite events. Last year we got to know a great group of customers and fellow vendors. For us, the market’s a lot like our office hours. It’s only a few blocks from the site of our factory space on Valencia, so it’s a great time to meet people in our neighborhood and share our chocolate. Come say hello!

If you’d like to learn more about chocolate making, take a look at Chocolate 101 in our online store.

Chocolate on Two Coasts!

April 9, 2012 by

I’m taking a trip to Boston this weekend and so is our chocolate. We met one of our retailers, Formaggio Kitchen, at the Good Food Awards in January. They won for their in-house charcuterie and had a chance to taste our chocolate while visiting SF. Awesomely, they were one of the first shops to bring our chocolate to the east coast, introducing it to a whole new set of customers. They snapped this photo at one of their first tasting sessions, saying that our bars are a perfect after-dinner treat.

While I’m visiting this weekend, I’ll host a tasting on Saturday from 11 AM – 2 PM at their shop in Cambridge. If you live nearby, come visit! I’ll have our three bars to taste and I’ll be ready to answer any questions about making chocolate from the bean. Hope to see you there!

If you’d like to learn more about chocolate making, take a look at Chocolate 101 in our online store.