Chocolate in the Blood, A Shopkeeper Returns
Weekly Briefing
It wasn’t long after the first Kron Chocolatier Inc. store opened in New York in 1973 that the firm established a reputation in the luxury chocolate business. With a client list that included Jacqueline Kennedy, owners Diane and Meir Kron expanded their enterprise within a decade to 40 stores, including one in Beverly Hills. But the Krons sold the chain in 1983 so they could raise a family. They moved to L.A. eight years ago.
With their children grown and her husband retired, Diane two years ago opened K Chocolatier/Diane Kron Inc. in Beverly Hills..
“I got tired of being home and decided to re-conquer my kingdom. Most of the chocolates out there are a joke. They are made with artificial ingredients. I’d be shopping in Neiman Marcus and I would hand them my credit card and they would see the name Kron. They would grab me and say, Where have you been? Where are those truffles? They remembered the chocolates from 25 years ago.
“I now have my varieties of chocolates ones with real vodka, scotch and bourbon centers for people over 21. I have truffles, which are a whipped bite-sized dark chocolate with whipped cream inside, little crispy teddy bears with rice inside, chocolates with orange peel or cranberries, dark chocolate and a large chocolate star that looks like the Hollywood Walk of Fame stars and come in a film reel case. They range from $100 to $200 a pound.
“We have a completely different line now. I’m using very select cocoa beans that I get primarily from Maracaibo, Venezuela and some Ghana beans from Africa. In my K Sensual chocolates, I’ve added a third cocoa bean from Brazil. K Sensual is a chocolate with 15 different Chinese herbs, which are an actual formula from a doctor of oriental medicine. He later explained that the herbs were for women stimulating blood flow. It heightens their sexual response. These chocolates are $200 a pound or four ounces in a box for $50. But I don’t sell by the piece because when it’s been sitting on the counter, exposed to the air, the flavor is dulled. Everything I sell has been put in air-tight packaging as soon as it has been made. I designed all the packaging myself.
“I have two shops in Beverly Hills, four blocks apart. The chocolates are made in a big factory in Gardena. I have a maximum of 12 employees in Gardena and stores and to prepare for Christmas and Valentine’s Day I keep the factory open 24 hours a day.”
David Greenberg
