On the Road

United States of

Treat yourself to a road trip like no other: We found America’s Cbest spots!"#$% for lovers, from coast to coast.e

Turn to start the tour! LEVI BROWN. LEVI BROWN.

140 FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE G MARCH 2012 MARCH 2012 G FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE 141 On the Road S"u& N'&()*

GIANT MILKSHAKE CHOCOLATE MOOSE Chick & Ruth’s Delly Len Libby Annapolis, MD Scarborough, ME The 6-pound milkshake here was No trip to Maine would be supposed to be a dessert for sharing, complete without a moose but customers started ordering one sighting, and stopping at Len per person and trying to finish the Libby guarantees you’ll see shake alone. (It contains a half gallon at least one: a 1,700-pound CHOCOLATE VILLAGE of ice cream!) Now the milkshake life-size moose named Daffin’s Candies, Sharon, PA challenge is official: Consume Lenny that’s made of milk The chocolate kingdom inside this one in less than an hour and chocolate. You can’t take a supermarket-size store is filled with castles, you’ll join hundreds of champions bite of his antlers (just about animals, even a moving Ferris wheel—all on the restaurant’s website. everyone asks), but you can made of . Two Sundays before $18; 165 Main St.; chickandruths.com eat as many of the one- Easter (March 25), the factory is open for pound versions as you’d like. tours—and lots of free treats. CHOCOLATE BUFFET $19 for a one-pound Store located at 496 East State St., Sharon, Four Seasons Atlanta CHOCOLATE FOR BREAKFAST chocolate moose; 419 U.S. PA; factory located at 7 Spearman Ave., Wagon Wheel, Greenbrier, AR Route One; lenlibby.com Farrell, PA; daffins.com

On Fridays in March, the Four Seasons’ TA. This is the place to try an unusual Arkansas E

restaurant, Park 75, rolls out an over-the-top, ASZ specialty: biscuits with chocolate gravy. The K all-you-can-eat chocolate buffet, and there’s D dish is exactly as it sounds—two biscuits R usually a line out the door. The menu includes HA MEGA CANDY STORE IC endless chocolate creations: brownies, topped with a sweet gravy made of chocolate Chutters, Littleton, NH A; R chocolate-dipped macaroons and more. and cornstarch. Wagon Wheel is just off IN How much candy do you need to stock AG

Highway 65 on the way to Branson, MO, so M the world’s longest candy counter?

$30 for buffet; room rates start at T $400 per night; 75 14th St. Northwest; lots of out-of-towners stop in to taste this Ask the folks at Chutters: Their 112- OBER

quirky dish for the first time. S; E fourseasons.com/atlanta .; R foot counter holds about 600 jars AT INC $3 for a full order, $2 for a half order; full of candies and chocolate bars—

166 South Broadview St.; 501-679-5009 OCOL and that doesn’t even count the H BORN C truffle and selection. The milk

ONE chocolate fudge is a must-try. TS; JUST JUST TS; TST E OR

CHOCOLATE HISTORY S 43 Main St.; chutters.com L!"# F$%&' E Goo Goo Clusters Colonial Williamsburg, Williamsburg, VA ; WH T & R ION

were invented in In the 18th century, chocolate bars weren’t snacks— EN M DAT N IN

Nashville 100 years they were a delicacy, intended to be melted for U CHOCOLATE SIGHTSEEING EDIBLE FACIAL TA O

drinking. Back then, turning raw cacao beans into ER G F Chocolate Trolley Tour, Boston The Spa at the Hotel Hershey ago, and they’re still T R N U

sold all over town. one pound of chocolate could take all day. You can B Hershey, PA Y E On this three-hour ride, tour conductors give E

see a reenactment on the first Tuesday of the month AMS An iPhone app called SH a history lesson on Boston specialties like We’ve heard of chocolate spa treatments, ILLI “Goo Goo Finder” will from September through June. (Why no summer HER Toll House cookies and Boston Cream Pie as but never edible ones. Here, customers W S; L

help you track down shows? Experts think colonists likely didn’t make A you travel from one chocolate tasting to the can lick their lips after a chocolate mask is

chocolate in July and August.) TORRE

the nearest location. next. Guides ask chocolate-trivia questions applied. Other chocolate services include a S OLONI E C

googoo.com Free admission with $19 to $38 tickets to Colonial E

QU along the way and award you with a diploma cocoa bath, a sugar scrub and a mud wrap. H C ZETTE. T A Williamsburg; 101 Visitor Center Dr.; history.org ; from the “Institute of Chocology” at the end. ; JA Chocolate services start at $50, room rates T-G BER PA A A $80 per person; 3 Park Plaza; 617-269-7150 start at $259 per night; 100 Hotel Rd.; H TY

N E

U chocolatespa.com AT O K C S DEMOCR

MONK!MADE FUDGE CHOCOLATE TASTING A NS APHY; APHY; A R

Abbey of Gethsemani Whetstone MERCER G T I O ARK S T I Homemade Fudge, Trappist, KY Factory, St. Augustine, FL ; O D

; V H P IO When the Trappist monks settled in the This spot calls its hour-long L !"# F$ % & ' GIANT COCOA POD ON S hills of central Kentucky in 1848, they factory tour a “tasting tour” ROWN These popular Philadelphia candy bars Jacques Torres Chocolate /STUD were originally created as military OBIN supported themselves by farming. Now because you get to try so many EIN New York City R MY C. B MY

they sell fruitcake, cheese and, best of all, treats along the way. Among DST rations during World War I; today Renowned Jacques Torres is so LIFF ERE

GOL they’re sold at almost every pharmacy T: J T: homemade fudge. The monks make it daily the samples: 72 percent cacao C T: obsessed with chocolate, he designed his N E LEF LEF and supermarket in town. ; B P in eight flavors, including Kentucky-themed chocolate (it’s intense!), roasted P West Village shop to be brown and oval- O O O T justborn.com/peanut-chews chocolate bourbon and mint julep. It’s sold cacao nibs and Whetstone’s O shaped, so you feel like you’re stepping M T M T H P

RO RO

online, but we recommend stopping famous chocolate seashells. N into a cocoa pod. Sit in the café with a , F , F E E DA S by in person and hiking the abbey’s trails. $7 for adults, $5 for children; S chocolate croissant and and OR WI WI J K $22 per pound; 3642 Monks Rd.; 139 King St.; K watch the candy-making in action. ER T LOC LOC PE C gethsemanifarms.org whetstonechocolates.com C 350 Hudson St.; mrchocolate.com

142 FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE G MARCH 2012 MARCH 2012 G FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE 143 On the Road

COLOSSAL Bellagio Resort Las Vegas The Bellagio’s W+* chocolate fountain set a Guinness World Record when it was CHOCOLATE built in 2005: It’s LOVER’S GARDEN more than 26 feet Chocolate Flower Farm tall and circulates Langley, WA nearly two tons of Everything grown on this 8-acre melted chocolate. garden is chocolate themed, including It’s enclosed in 6-foot brown sunflowers, chocolate- glass (sorry, no colored corn and cocoa-scented dipping!), but Jean- blossoms. The farm is open from April Philippe Pâtisserie to September, but the store in town, is right next door to stocked with fun chocolate gardening satisfy cravings. supplies, is open year-round. Rooms from $159 Free admission; garden per night; 3600 located at 5040 Saratoga Rd.; Las Vegas Blvd. chocolateflowerfarm.com South; bellagio.com

DECORATING MEGASTORE S SUN. Spun Sugar, Berkeley, CA GA S VE A L L !"# F$ % & ' This candy-supply superstore has / Try a Rocky Road candy bar when everything you need to turn your kitchen MILLER you’re in the area: The chocolate-

into a chocolate factory: thousands of N covered cashew-and-marshmallow molds, every shade of food coloring, plus

treats, invented in California in 1950, garnishes like edible glitter. The main S; ETHA O M

are still a West Coast favorite. attraction is the Wall of Chocolate, which A

N

annabelle-candy.com A

holds just part of the store’s 5,000-pound V ; E

stash of chocolate. EL T 1611 University Ave.; spunsugar.com O GS H RIN D SP N A TOP!SECRET CANDY BARS L ; ASH Ethel M Chocolates, Henderson, NV R A The candy-making execs at Mars are ILY ST ILY DA CHOCOLATE BINGE normally as tight-lipped as Willy Wonka A Oregon Chocolate Festival about their upcoming products, but at RIZON

Ashland, OR this chocolate factory, about 20 minutes A from the Vegas Strip, you can check out The first weekend in March means one thing UTH/ N

some products before they hit shelves. K in Ashland: chocolate. A ticket to the town’s N A annual chocolate festival buys two days of The Ethel M company store stocks small- E S; D chocolate-themed seminars and classes, batch items produced on-site before Mars E and practically unlimited sampling. “People decides whether to roll them out. You can also see chocolate-making in action on HUGH really leave in a chocolate coma,” says ELL H

the factory tour. C T organizer Karolina Wyszynska. I Free tour; 1 Sunset Way; ethelm.com $20 per ticket; 212 East Main St.; S; M ashlandspringshotel.com ILL D M E ; T ALL!CHOCOLATE DINNER INCOLN

The Grill at Hacienda del Sol, Tucson, AZ L RIE

Chefs at this Southwestern restaurant host a A M

chocolate-themed dinner every few months, and T: LEF

they’re thinking way beyond mole. Past menus P include scallops in a sauce and O M T –marinated beef. The next dinner FRO , E

is scheduled for March 17. S WI $50 for a four-course meal; 5501 North Hacienda K LOC

del Sol Rd.; haciendadelsol.com C

144 FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE G MARCH 2012 On the Road M,-.+* CHOCOLATE!COVERED EVERYTHING Carol Widman’s Candy Company Fargo, ND You won’t believe what this place dips in chocolate: olives, jalapeños and, best of all, potato chips (aka Chippers). Ask for a sample! 4325 13th Ave. South; carolwidmanscandy.com SWEET ARTWORK Long Grove Confectionery Co. Factory, Buffalo Grove, IL KOOKY CHOCOLATIER This isn’t your average chocolate-factory Northern Chocolate Company, Milwaukee tour: A 2,500-pound chocolate Statue of Liberty greets you in the lobby, a 500-pound Jim Fetzer is the real-life chocolate-shop version chocolate Santa sits in the theater and the of Seinfeld’s “Soup Nazi.” His mandates: no fur, hallways are lined with art—eight Monets no cell phones and no unaccompanied children. and one Seurat made of chocolate. “It can be horrific or it can be fabulous coming here, depending on what mood I’m in,” Fetzer says. $2 per person for a tour (free on weekends), If he lets you in (you have to buzz and meet his weekday reservations required: 888-459- standards to gain entry), try the mint meltaways. 3100; 333 Lexington Dr.; longgrove.com 2034 North Dr. Martin Luther King Dr.;

414-372-1885 . ONI T DIAN

L !"# F$ % & ' ER HOTEL FUDGE SHOP Grab an Iowa-made Twin Bing from T Murray Hotel, Mackinac Island, MI PE

a local store. Each pack comes with TH; Mackinac Island has seven fudge shops on I

two chocolate-and-peanut-coated SM its 4.4 square miles, earning it the unofficial cherry nougat treats. NIE

title of fudge capital of the world. Stay PHA palmercandy.com E

at the historic Murray Hotel, home to the ; ST EL biggest fudge selection in town. T HO

Fudge, $13 per pound; rooms from $89 AY RR

per night, mid-May through October; U M

7260 Main St.; mymurrayhotel.com S; EWE SS D SS E ; J

CULT COOKIES E Bradley Center, Milwaukee TAGU When Frontier merged with Midwest in MON

2010, frequent fliers wondered what the N

name change would mean for Midwest .; RYA Airlines’ beloved cookies. O DY C DY Frontier still offers them—but you can also N CA

get your fix on the ground at Milwaukee ER M L

basketball and hockey games. Wisconsin’s A P Sendik’s Food Markets also sell the dough! ; ON S

$3.50 per cookie; 1001 North 4th St.; ER

CHOCOLATE SLICE T

bradleycenter.com PE P

Amore Chocolate Pizza Company I K Leawood, KS S TH; I

You won’t find any pepperoni or parmesan in M S DESSERT AS BOOZE this pizza joint: Owner Annette Cook makes EL Baileys’ , St. Louis her pies out of chocolate. She opened the HA In most bars you’re lucky to find one chocolate cocktail on MIC shop two years ago after friends raved T: the menu, but at Baileys’ Chocolate Bar, you can choose LEF

about her fun twist on pizza—a puffed-rice P from dozens. In addition to chocolate beer, chocolate port cereal, marshmallow and chocolate base O M T and a Chocolate Stout Shake, Baileys’ has a separate with coconut and white chocolate “cheese.” FRO , E chocolate martini menu with 15 options. The shop sells several varieties. S WI 1915 Park Ave. (in Lafayette Square); Chocolate pizzas starting at $3; 4821 K baileyschocolatebar.com West 117th St.; amorechocolatepizza.com CLOC

146 FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE G MARCH 2012