Chocolate In Words

The view from the corner of Connecticut and L.  Credit: Freewheeling Spirit.

At some point in the late 90's, I figured out where men in downtown Washington, D.C. went to buy gifts for the women in their lives  -- the intersection of Connecticut Avenue and L Street N.W. In front of Farrugut North Metro station, you could usually find vendors selling flowers, jewelry, and knockoff handbags.  Across the street in the glitzy Washington Square building, there was a Victoria's Secret and Chocolate Chocolate, the sweetest little independently-owned chocolate shop you could imagine.  My wife loved gifts from Chocolate Chocolate, so I would often stop by the shop to get her something for Valentine's day or our anniversary.

A box of mixed truffles for my lovely wife. Credit: Freewheeling Spirit

The first time I visited Chocolate Chocolate, I noticed some magazine and newspaper clippings displayed on the wall.  They were not, as I expected,  reviews of Chocolate Chocolate, although there may have been a typical Washingtonian or City Paper "Best of D.C." along side the clippings.  The articles that caught my attention were about the shop's owners, Frances Park and Ginger Park, not in their roles as chocolatiers, but as authors.  They had written adult and children's books together and separately and had appeared on national television.

Sometime around 2009, or maybe 2010, I went to buy some truffles and found an empty store.  I wondered what had happened to Chocolate Chocolate?  I thought maybe the sisters had closed the shop for good and moved on to full-time writing or even retirement.

Then, a few months ago, I walked by a book display and did a double-take when I saw the title Chocolate Chocolate: The True Story of Two Sisters, Tons of Treats, and the Little Shop That Could.  The Park sisters had written a memoir!

Book cover. Credit: St Martin's Press.

Even better, upon perusing the book, I learned that their chocolate shop had not actually closed, but had moved a half block north on Connecticut Avenue.

The memoir itself is a wonderful story about how the Park sisters, not long after the unexpected loss of their father in the early 80's, opened up the "little shop that could" in the glitzy Washington Square building, which they refer to as "Oz."  The choice of location is an interesting story, as is the ongoing problems with their nasty landlord, whom they never identify but instead refer to as the "Evil Empire."  From my independent research, I've concluded that the two sisters were up against real estate giant Lerner Enterprises, whose titular head, Ted Lerner, is now the principal owner of the Washington Nationals.  Lerner's evil empire evicted Chocolate Chocolate in 2008 for absolutely no good reason.  More on that in a moment.

"Oz." Credit: Lerner Enterprises.

I love that every chapter of the book begins with a description of a different chocolate.  If you like chocolate, this is a book that will make you drool.  But this is a memoir, so it's not all about chocolate.  In fact, there's quite a bit about the Parks' private lives.  The sisters have managed to add humor to tales of heartbreak. Here's an excerpt:

"Darren's cheating on me," Francie blurted.

Ginger murmered, not completely surprised.  "Why do you think he's cheating on you?"

"I spent the night at his place last night, and after he left for work this morning, his phone rang but I didn't pick up.  The next thing I knew, a woman's voice was leaving a message for him."

"Oh, God. What did she say?"

"She was crying, actually, asking him why he never showed up at her house last night."

Ginger hugged her sister. "Let's face it, Francie, Darren's got too much baggage for a real relationship."

"Not only that, there's something I never told you."

"What?"

"I don't know if I can say it."

"Say it!"

"Darren can't tell the difference between our chocolate and the stuff from Peoples Drug store."

That's quite a slam coming from a chocolatier!

One of the best parts of the book, though, is the sisters' descriptions of the characters who walk into their shop.  After awhile, Chocolate Chocolate has enough regulars that it develops a Cheers atmosphere.  The Park sisters and their customers often become friends, sharing gossip in the "chat corner" of the tiny store. 

The chocolate shop itself became a big success, despite some unsteadiness during the first year it was open, and despite being an independent in an era of big chain stores.  By the 2000's, the Parks describe the shop as being in its golden era.  Chocolate Chocolate had not only won accolades from the press, but the Evil Empire itself had found in its surveys that Chocolate Chocolate was its most popular retailer.  So why did they evict Chocolate Chocolate? 

According to the Park sisters, Lerner decided to tear down some walls, make a bigger space, and "collect more rent from a higher-ticket operation." In doing so, Lerner almost destroyed something unique in downtown D.C. and, for that matter, in America - an independently-run family business.

"Retail had changed vastly since the last time we looked," the Park sisters write.  "Developers had tunnel vision for the cloning of America: Subway, Cosi, RadioShack, etc.  Homegrown independents like us presented a risk."

This book, fortunately, has a happy ending. The sisters eventually do find another space, not far from Oz, where they continue to sell chocolates today.

The current home of Chocolate Chocolate is inside an alcove at 1130 Conn Avenue N.W. If you click for big, you might be able to spot their sign. Credit: Freewheeling Spirit 

If you happen to stop by Chocolate Chocolate, I recommend not only the chocolates but also their latest book: Chocolate Chocolate: The True Story of Two Sisters, Tons of Treats, and the Little Shop That Could.

On SciFest and the Future

Dr. Molecule was about to pour liquid nitrogen into a bucket of steaming water.  "We should be able to make a cloud that will go up to the ceiling."


On a nearby stage, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage were doing their Mythbusters routine.  In fact, there was so much going on at Second Annual USA Science and Engineering Festival, also known as #SciFest and the Woodstock of Science, that the sheer size of the event was overwhelming.  There were more than 3,000 exhibits -- many of them hands-on in order to appeal to children -- and more than 150 speakers, including Dr. Molecule, the Mythbusters, and Bill Nye the Science Guy. 

Dr. Molecule was right. Immediately, as the liquid nitrogen hit the hot water, a huge plume of vapor engulfed the stage and rose to the high ceiling of the Washington Convention Center.  The audience cheered.

Later, my kids explored a rocket capsule, examined a fighter jet, and stepped inside a tornado chase vehicle, and they met astronauts, scientists, and researchers from organizations such as NASA, NIH, and various private research and technology organizations.


The mission of SciFest is to "re-invigorate the interest of our nation's youth in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) by producing and presenting the most compelling, exciting, educational and entertaining science festival in the United States."  It would be hard to imagine a more compelling and comprehensive demonstration of STEM than what we saw at SciFest.

A month earlier, I took the kids to a different kind of event on the National Mall - the Reason Rally.  As the name suggests, this was a rally to support reason, but it was in truth an opportunity for atheists to come out and be visible.  I met several science teachers at the Reason Rally, many of them helping with hands-on exhibits inside the children's tent.

These two events, SciFest and Reason Rally, have given me hope that America is moving forward in STEM rather than slipping backwards into the dark ages of superstition and supernatural beliefs.  

Unfortunately, I don't have any empirical evidence to back that up.

Object of Pleasure Day

Lipski's hanging bicycle sculpture in foreground, bar stool sculpture in background. Credit: Freewheeling Spirit

A few weeks ago I was wandering around the Washington Convention Center with my kids, (we were there for SciFest, a topic I'll discuss next week) when we found ourselves in the convention center's 100-foot atrium, which is dominated by Donald Lipski’s “5 Easy Pieces.” These five separate hanging sculptures (I guess they’re not called “mobiles” because they don’t move) are made from actual guitars, tennis racquets, kayaks, bicycles, and bar stools.

On his website, Lipski has this to say about “5 Easy Pieces:”

“Growing up, my father was in the bicycle business. Going to convention centers meant the toy show, the sporting goods show, pure fun. So for this piece I used objects of pleasure.”

More and more, the bicycle is discussed as a mode of transportation, as if this were a new discovery.  In some ways, bicycling is a new mode of transportation in D.C., given the emergence of Capital Bikeshare, cycletracks, and increasingly prevalent bike racks.   I love that Lipski described the bicycle as something unrelated to transportation -- as an object of pleasure.

This Friday is Bike to Work Day and as always it will be a wonderful, positive event.  In fact, this year will be better than ever, with many more pit stops around D.C. and its suburbs. In addition to the official website, there many inspiring blog posts suitable for the occasion, perhaps even the one that I just posted on Bikes For The Rest Of Us. But these articles tend to be about the bicycle as a mode of transportation rather than as an object of pleasure.

I hope there will be lots of new riders out and about this Friday (WABA says bring a friend!). More importantly, I hope they will discover that riding a bike is one of life's great pleasures.

Tell All

Originally published in May 2006.

Last night, my son and I were sitting at the dining room table eating Klondike bars.

Tell me all of your secrets that you have never told me before, he says. Then he takes a big bite of ice cream filling.

There are so many secrets of my adult life that I keep from him. He's only 4. I can't think of anything I want to share with him at the moment.

Then, with his mouth half-full, he says: Like, are you really the Tickle Monster?

A First Blog Post About First Blog Posts

  My long blogcation is over. Photo credit: Freewheeling Spirit.

Most first blog posts fall into one of three categories:

(1) The test post, which often says something like this: "Hey, I have a blog; let's see how this goes;"

(2) The "getting-right-down-to-business" post that includes no introduction whatsoever;

(3) An attempt by the blogger to introduce the subject matter of the blog.

The prolific blogger Gwadzilla is an example of the first category. His first blog post, in 2003, starts with a Shakespearean twist: "To blog or not to blog..." but he quickly answers that it's not even a question. "It is free," he emphasizes. Point well-taken.

The Drunken Housewife falls in the second category. Her first post, titled Not Sure How Long I Can Be So Perfect, gets right into a witty account of her family life that is the staple of her blog. Not bad.

According to the founder of dcblogs, who is a real expert on blogging, the best first post ever was by Why I Hate DC, whose 2003 first blog post stated:

This blog will contain the various reasons I hate living in Washington, D.C. There may be no rhyme or reason to my rantings, and likely no suggestion for how to solve the problems I have with the city and metro area. Frankly, my dear, suck on it.

That is a third category first blog post par excellence.  It is short and sets the tone beautifully.

My first, first blog post was six years ago on May 1, 2006. I tried to write something that would fall into the third category. I wrote that Freewheeling Spirit would be about the virtues of slowness and bicycling. I discussed how I had considered the blog title "The Slow Pedaler" but ditched it after my wife persuaded me that it would be misunderstood. Slow could be misconstrued to mean "dumb;" and pedaler could be misread as "peddler," as in one who wants to sell you something. I soon regretted the introduction to my blog when I discovered other topics I wanted to write about that did not fit into the first post's description.

The first Freewheeling Spirit banner, designed by Meghan.

Due to lack of time and interest, I deleted Freewheeling Spirit several times, and almost all the posts have disappeared into the ether, including that first blog post on May 1, 2006. I was able to preserve my second post, which turned out to be my favorite post from the old blog. It will once again be the second post of this blog.



The banner during my Fixed Wheeling Spirit phase. Credit: Freewheeling Spirit.

I have decided that, this time, I should not tell you what this blog is about.  I will just welcome you to Freewheeling Spirit.

Testing, testing. Let's see how this goes...

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Email:

freewheeling_spirit@yahoo.com

Twitter:

@freespit

My other blog:

Bikes For The Rest Of Us

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