by Stephanie Blackwood
“I love the business of chocolate. I’ve noticed, and maybe you have too, that people are always happy when they are eating chocolate.”
—Anthony Cirone, President
Li-Lac Chocolates is New York’s City’s oldest and most traditional chocolate house. It’s also a very sweet story. A 21st-century fairy tale. In New York’s West Village, Li-Lac has delighted and served customers since Founder George Demetrious opened the original Christopher Street store in 1923. After more than 90 years, Li-Lac still offers the original French-inspired confections that Demetrious put in his display cases, but Li-Lac has changed radically. Outgrowing the original intimate shop, the West Village store is now on Eighth Avenue and there are three additional locations. A boutique in bustling Grand Central Station serves commuters and tourists. Across the East River in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park, Li-Lac carefully crafts its small-batch chocolate in a state-of-the- old-fashioned-art factory in Industry City, an exciting innovation center. And in October, a new flagship and concept store officially opened in the Greenwich Village.
Keep reading over at Passport magazine online…
