Feb 06

L'Artisan Du Chocolat (3rd/Virgil)

Food 05: Silver Lake

top row: Tomato, Raspberry
bottom row: Olive, 72% Cocoa, Jasmine. Not in picture: Kumquat

Not sure what's the name of the neighbourhood inbetween mid-wilshire and Silver lake/Echo park, but I would never have guess there dwell a cute gourmet chocolate shop! Located on 1st street (cross stree: Virgil) with bright red Parisian exterior, L'Artisan Du Chocolat seems the kind of fine gourmet shop that should be in Beverly Hills or West Hollywood. The very friendly owner/chocolatier lady patiently tell us what each of the chocolates in the display case are. All the chocoates are handmade. There's a wide range of flavors, from more standard ones like green tea, ginger, hazelnut...etc to interesting and unique flavors such as chili, tomato, olives...etc. My immediate impression was: this is the chocoate version of Scoop! The owner/Chocolatier was trained in Paris and you can just tell that she is very passionate about the art. Jon and I tried the chocolate right away at a nearby cafe. The texture is incredibly smooth. Flavors are very rich, especially the Jasmine one, which was my most favorite of the bunch. I love the olive one too (yes it works! with a touch a savory). There are little pieces of olives inside. The tomato one is a bit too subtle though. 72% Cocoa is really rich and dense, good thing we saved that for last.

You can buy their chocolates online too (valentine's *wink wink*). Can't wait to go back to try others.

L'Artisan Du Chocolat (213) 252-8721
3364 W 1st St. Los Angeles, CA 90004

Joan | February 6, 2007 04:05 PM