Tour Sunset Park’s Li-Lac Chocolates Factory
The Li-Lac Chocolates Factory was buzzing with activity earlier this week as the “old-school chocolate” purveyors were busy creating their signature artisanal, small-batch treats for Valentine’s Day.
The factory, at 68 35th Street, Industry City in Sunset Park, could be mistaken for a laboratory with its pristine white surfaces and orderly shelves, but once you open the front door and step in, the heavenly aroma that greets you is unmistakably chocolate.
The small shop in front was filled with a vivid array of Valentine’s Day gifts. “We probably have the biggest selection of Valentine hearts and items from any chocolatier anywhere,” says Li-Lac co-owner Anthony Cirone. Priced for every budget, options start with small heart pops (chocolate hearts on a stick) for $4, chocolate bears, chocolate handbags, chocolate champagne bottles, and heart-shaped boxes filled with quantities of candies going up to 72 pieces for $135. (On their website Li-Lac also offers a 210-piece Giant Heart for $375.) The Boyfriend’s Heart, a brown heart box “filled with all of his favorite items” including Chocolate Almond Bark, Pecan Chews, Butter Crunch, Nonpareils, and a solid red-foiled Chocolate Heart, is a popular choice for boyfriends/husbands.
Founded by Georges Demetrious, who studied the art of chocolate making in France, Li-Lac is rich with history and tradition. Demetrious opened the historic Li-Lac shop at 120 Christopher Street in 1923 with the original factory tucked away in the back of the store. It was here that he painstakingly perfected his recipes for Almond Bark, Butter Crunch, and Fudge—all still favorites among loyal Li-Lac customers today. Using large copper kettles and cooling marble tables among their arsenal of tools, Demetrious and his staff meticulously handmade all the chocolates in small batches ensuring quality and freshness.
When Demetrious passed away in 1972, he left his company, and well as his recipes, in the care of Marguerite Watt, a loyal employee of Li-Lac for 25 years. Watt upheld the high quality and standards instituted by Demetrious for 6 years before retiring and selling the business to friend and loyal Li-Lac customer, Edward Bond, in 1978. Bond enlisted the help of his sister Martha in running the business and the two were business partners until Edward’s death in 1990.
Martha continued at the helm, maintaining the company’s integrity while beginning to expand, opening a second Li-Lac outpost in Grand Central Market in 1999. In typical New York fashion, due to rent hikes, after 82 years at 120 Christopher Street, Martha was forced in 2005 to close the original Li-Lac shop and relocate the store to 40 8th Avenue in the West Village. The factory moved to Brooklyn to a 3-story facility on 50th Street in Sunset Park.
When Martha retired she passed Li-Lac Chocolates on to two long-time customers and West Village neighbors, Anthony Cirone and Christopher Taylor. Cirone, who previously worked in brand development, explains how he and Taylor acquired the business, “I was working in corporate America and I wanted to have my own business and I had looked for a long time…try[ing] to figure out what kind of business I wanted…. I looked into a lot of types of businesses but wasn’t finding anything interesting at all…. I loved Li-Lac Chocolates Shop and kept trying to find a business like Li-Lac.”
One day he decided to simply ask Martha, whom he knew by shopping at the store for 15 years, if she might be interested in selling the business. She said, “no.” Undeterred, he followed up with her for the next 3 years until finally she said, “yes.”
Since taking over in 2011, Cirone and Taylor have grown the business, adding a store in Greenwich Village and another in Chelsea Market. In 2014, they moved the factory from 50th Street in Sunset Park to Industry City where there is a fifth storefront.
Anwar Khoder, Li-Lac’s Master Chocolater and third co-owner, started working with the company in 1989 after arriving to the United States from Lebanon. The Brooklyn resident says that he was instrumental in the factory’s initial move to Sunset Park, but explains that after 10 years, the company quickly outgrew the 50th Street space, “When we first moved there it was huge, but after a few years there, we grew…” so production moved north to Industry City.
“Sunset Park is great,” says Cirone, “Industry City, particularly, is amazing. Not only is the space great—this is a beautiful space [with] high ceilings and great windows—but the location is great because the other food and non-food businesses here make a community, and it’s nice to be a part of the community.”
Though Cirone and Taylor have expanded the number of Li-Lac shops, moved the factory, added new items (like salted caramels and peanut butter cups), and redesigned the packaging since taking over in 2011, Cirone insists they’ve “preserved the history and the product…we haven’t made any changes to the products or the recipes, that’s the main thing.” He adds, “We specialize in, as we call it, ‘old-school chocolates.’ Basically, we preserved all [Demetrious’] old recipes…. We keep all his old recipes and his old cooking techniques.” He’s quick to note, “We’re old-school, but we’re not outdated.”
Success can be complicated—the more the company grows, demand increases, and it becomes difficult to meet the demands when the chocolate is being made in small batches by hand. Khoder says, “We still make chocolate the old-fashioned way, the old-school candies, with the same recipes…but with the expansion we are going through, I’m not changing any recipes or downgrading the quality of the chocolate. This is my main concern. I don’t want to lose any quality in the chocolate.” With his and Cirone’s commitment to the Li-Lac brand, consumers won’t have to worry.
[All Photos by Pamela Wong/BKLYNER]