Looking back at 2018, two words accurately describe our journey: loss and growth. Two giant steps back and one step forward which contains a world of potential ahead. With all businesses, there is a learning curve that can yield any number of positive and negative results. While the Grand Rapids community embraced our sister restaurant, Rocket Pies, with open arms it just wasn’t in the cards for our beloved pizza joint to last. We learned a considerable amount from that venture and although we hoped pizza and ice cream could operate in a sort of yin and yang coexistence, we ultimately decided that without compromising ingredient quality, craftsmanship, and the customer experience, Rocket could not survive in this location (#noregrets). On a more positive note, we transformed the old Rocket space into what we now affectionately refer to as the “Dessert Emporium”. In shutting one door, we opened another and started Love’s Chocolate and Confections.
With a shout-out to our devoted chocolatier, Toni, and our ever-knowledgeable and talented owner, Chris, we have been fully immersing ourselves in the wonderful world of chocolate and confections. And we have found that ice cream and confections have a bit more in common, not to mention far more ingredient crossover, than sweet and savory. 😉 Between new equipment and new recipe development, we have had plenty on our plates these past few months. To say it’s been easy would not be accurate. To say it’s been a fun and wild ride would be accurate. We have grown considerably through all the challenges we’ve faced, making us better ice cream makers, confectioners, and artisans. Our base of knowledge has expanded considerably, looking deeper at the science behind everything we now create, which has caused us to look much differently at many of our processes as a whole. With the addition of new equipment, we’ve unleashed possibilities we’d only dreamed of before. As you may have noticed, we have a large, efficient machine that enrobes all our bonbons in an even layer of tempered chocolate. Not only does our enrober serve our confections side, it also allows us to quickly coat virtually anything we wish in chocolate. Our inner child does a bit of shrieking in delight on the regular. ☺ Another magical piece of machinery that has broadened possibilities across the board is our coating pan. Picture a giant, hollow bowl that continually rotates. This allows us to slowly coat ingredients like roasted nuts and espresso beans in chocolate, praliné, or sugar. And because it’s essentially a giant rock tumbler, it polishes that ingredient to a beautiful, irresistible shine. Chances are, the next time you find a morsel of chocolate-covered or sugar-coated delight in your ice cream scoop, it was prepared, at least partially, by one of those two Willy Wonka-esque machines (minus the Oompa Loompas and Augustus Gloop-style mishaps).
On the ice cream side of things, we expanded our pint sales across Michigan, now selling out of, among other specialty shops and grocery markets, 10 Meijer stores including the recently opened Bridge St Market. Our catering side was overwhelmingly busy (in the best way possible) this past summer and fall. And with even more to offer now with chocolates and confections, we don’t see it slowing down anytime soon. This last year has allowed us to push boundaries not only as a standalone shop, but also within the local sweets scene. We’re delighted with how our renovated space looks and operates, and we really could not be more thankful for the generous spirit and outpouring of support from all of you, our biggest fans. Our 5th year may well have been our best and (craziest) year yet. We took so many lessons from our short run in the pizza realm and we forge on with an improved and expanded skill set, journeying onward in the lands of ice cream and chocolate. We still make pizza behind the scenes every now and again to relish the deliciousness we still know how to create 🙂 From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for staying loyal and sharing and spreading the Love’s. Cheers to 2019 and all things sweet!
Stay Sweet,
Love’s Production Crew