Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
Her late-husband, Byron, was working in the insurance business and one of his coworkers had opened a gift shop in Bellbrook. The owner of the gift shop was looking to sell maple cream candy during the Sugar Maple Festival, so Blose helped her out.
The maple cream candy was well received and when Easter came around the next year, Blose had several requests.
“That’s when I said to my husband, if I make dark, they’re going to want light. If I make light, they’re going to want dark,” Blose said. “It was his idea to combine and keep mixing until we came up with one.”
Forty years later, Bellbrook Chocolates is using the same signature blend of light and dark chocolates that makes the shop stand out today.
The early days of Bellbrook Chocolates
Blose started selling chocolates Nov. 4, 1984 at the corner of West Franklin and North Main Streets. The shop was located in the brick building across the street from McIntosh’s Pub & Grub, before it moved the following September to 6. W. Franklin St.
Prior to selling chocolate, Blose was a stay-at-home mom to two sons. She is originally from Richmond, IN and had lived in Forest Park near Cincinnati before moving to Centerville in 1970.
She started off by offering four creams (buttercream, peanut butter, chocolate and maple), two caramels (plain and pecan) and two fudges (chocolate and peanut butter).
Blose was operating a gift shop alongside her chocolate business and in 1999 she decided to solely focus on chocolate. This is when she moved Bellbrook Chocolates to Centerville’s Cross Pointe Centre at 101 E. Alex Bell Road, Suite 144.
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
Her goal at the time was to build her business into a “marketable commodity,” sell it and go to Lexington, Kentucky where her son, Marshall, and daughter-in-law, Laura, were living with their four year old daughter, Emily. Blose was planning for she and Laura to open a chocolate shop there, but plans changed quickly.
In 2000, her son’s family moved back to the Dayton area and today, Marshall and Laura operate the chocolate shop.
“I’m most proud of the fact that it’s gone from my generation to their generation,” Blose said. “They have taken it further than I ever could.”
2nd Street Market
Bellbrook Chocolates also operates as a vendor at 2nd Street Market, located at 600 E. Second St. in Dayton.
The family completed a couple years at the market in the early 2000s, but left because they had trouble operating with the summertime heat. When they reopened at the market in 2014, they had refrigerated storage and display cases.
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
Bellbrook Chocolates wanted to open a second location at 2nd Street Market to expand their footprint and “it worked better than we could have ever anticipated,” Marshall said.
“All you have to do is try our chocolate,” he added.
What to expect at Bellbrook Chocolates
The chocolate shop features more than 80 different products daily including creams, caramels, truffles, cherries, buckeyes, nut clusters, fudge, chocolate covered fruit, suckers, sugar nuts and Aunt Laura’s Shortbread Cookies.
Laura said she started baking in Lexington where she came up with the shortbread cookie recipe. It’s very simple — butter, flour and sugar — but it all depends on the way you mix it and incorporate the ingredients. The thickness of the cookies and how long you bake them are also important. Marshall said he hears lots of stories from customers that these cookies remind them of their grandmother’s shortbread.
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
Other favorites at the shop include the Bellbrook Pretzel, a pretzel rod dipped in caramel, rolled in toffee and dipped in chocolate, or a Peanut Butter Meltaway, a combination of the shop’s signature blend mixed with peanut butter. That same blend of chocolate and peanut butter is also used for the dipped Rice Krispy treats.
“Anybody can take a pretzel rod and dip it in chocolate,” Marshall said. “The difference is our chocolate is just better.”
Truly handmade chocolates
Not only does Bellbrook Chocolates use a signature blend with no added preservatives, but every single treat in the shop is made by hand. There are no machines.
Marshall comes in early every morning and goes through the coolers to see what needs to be made for the day. Everything in the shop is made in small batches. For example, buttercreams are rolled into a ball and then hand dipped individually before they are placed on the pan and given a signature swirl.
Credit: Jim Witmer
Credit: Jim Witmer
“We don’t wholesale it because we can’t produce enough,” Marshall said. “Between this shop and 2nd Street Market, during the holidays it takes everything we got to produce enough for those two entities plus we do a lots of corporate gifts too.”
When asked how many chocolates are made, Marshall guessed that during Christmas time they sell hundreds of pounds of chocolate boxes. He estimated that he dips between 5,000 and 10,000 strawberries from January through October.
The key to being successful is being efficient, organized and knowing how much someone can accomplish by hand in a certain amount of time.
The people are the heart of the business
Marshall is proud of “the reputation that Bellbrook Chocolate Shoppe has for the quality of our product and for the people that work here.”
“The one full-time employee we have, Kathy Ball, worked for (my mom) back in that shop, down in that basement, making candy 30 something years ago.” Marshall said.
Credit: Archive Photo
Credit: Archive Photo
The chocolate shop continues to grow every year — especially after the coronavirus pandemic.
“What we have here are people coming in now with their little ones and they came in when they were little,” Blose said. “We have a very, very loyal customer base.”
Emily, who is now 29 and works for the BMW dealer in Cincinnati, confirmed that she does have plans to come back one day and take the shop off her parents’ hands when they are ready. A
s the business hits 40 years, the family would like to say “thank you” to their customers.
MORE DETAILS
Bellbrook Chocolates is celebrating its anniversary with an open house from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 4. Customers are encouraged to stop by the shop and share their favorite memories.
The chocolate shop has created a special anniversary box featuring the eight original pieces of chocolate, which includes four creams (buttercream, peanut butter, chocolate and maple), two caramels (plain and pecan) and two fudges (chocolate and peanut butter).
Bellbrook Chocolates is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday at Centerville’s Cross Pointe Centre. The chocolate shop operates at 2nd Street Market 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, visit bellbrookchocolates.com or the chocolate shop’s Facebook or Instagram pages (@bellbrookchocolateshoppe).
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