Unique Concepts Summer 2008

Success Tastes Sweet at The Chocolate Bar

By Claude Solnick
For author bio, please check out our Author's Page by clicking on their name.

Waiting for a plane has never been so delicious. While a few fliers might be content to pick up a Hershey bar and head to the plane, travelers at Boston's Logan International Airport will discover a chocolate heaven that would make even Willy Wonka's eyes grow wide with wonder. The Chocolate Bar, an inline store that opened in Logan's Terminal A around Thanksgiving of 2007, is 163 square feet of chocolate paradise. The concept is the brainchild of Baldwin, NY-based MAR Air Foods, which operates airport concessions at John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports in New York as well as Newark Liberty International, Washington Dulles International Airport and Logan.

"There's nothing mainstream" about the concept, says President Rich Rosamilia. "It's all high end and unusual or unique."

Airline travelers accustomed to traditional candy bars and gum find more than eye candy at The Chocolate Bar. Here, Toblerone, Ghirardelli and Godiva line the shelves. See's chocolates in particular seem to attract fans. "We have people that come in... and they grab three, four, five boxes," Rosamilia says.

The Chocolate Bar started off with a taste of sweet success on opening day. From the first hour the store opened it drew crowds. "We had people trying to shop as we were packing the stuff onto the shelves," Rosamilia recalls. Airports are ideal for high-end chocolate shops, he adds, due to the foot traffic, ample waiting time and travelers' desire to buy gifts for those back home. If they have time, visitors to The Chocolate Bar can even get a lesson in chocolate culture by watching one of several 42-inch plasma screens showing documentaries on the history of chocolate, in-depth cooking demonstrations and some of the best known chocolate-themed entertainment around, including "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and the "I Love Lucy" chocolate factory episode.

MAR opened The Chocolate Bar in Logan as a test to see whether the concept would fly in airports. "We thought it would be a good idea and we didn't see anybody else doing it," Rosamilia says.

Now that the first store has passed its retail test with flying colors, MAR is setting up a second, larger one in Logan's Terminal C, slated to include a host of new products, including chocolate gelato, sandwiches made with chocolate, organic chocolate peanut butters and fruit dipped in Belgian chocolate, plus live cooking demonstrations.

The store will also carry chocolate pastries, yogurts, sodas, tortilla chips and an entire menu of chocolate cuisine. "Anything and everything chocolate outside the margins of just wrapped bars of chocolate," he says. "When you take a look at the chocolate market, it's gone from your basic candy bar to an unbelievable source" of new derivative products that MAR has every intention of introducing to the chocolate-deprived traveling public.

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