Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/250528
START-UP SUCCESS CELLAR DOOR CHOCOLATES E ONE QUESTION rika Chavez-Graziano doesn't remember much about the early days of Cellar Door Chocolates. She was operating out of rented kitchens, frst at the now-defunct O'Neil's Sweet Shop in Jefersontown, then in a 250-square-foot kitchen at Quills Cofee on Baxter Avenue, where she also sold her chocolates. Starting out, she estimates she worked more than 80 hours a week to develop trufe and bourbon ball recipes and fnd places to sell them. "It was hard — chocolate is a difcult mistress," she says. Te biggest challenge: learning to temper the chocolate. Tat's the process in which the chocolate is exposed to diferent temperatures to ensure that the fnished product has a smooth, glossy surface. "A lot of people think (making chocolates) is just melting it in the microwave and then pouring it into a mold, and voilà, but that's not the case at all," says Chavez-Graziano, 33. Today, Cellar Door chocolates are sold in some 30 boutiques around town, and in the company's own retail stores in the Butchertown Market (1201 Story Ave.) and Oxmoor Mall. Before starting Cellar Door in 2007, Chavez-Graziano was about to fnish her master's degree in political science at the University of Louisville. She was burned out in academia, and her adviser suggested she do something with the chocolates she'd make and bring to class. Chavez-Graziano got into making chocolates when she visited a shop that sold chocolate-making supplies in her hometown of Albuquerque, N.M. She'd always been into baking, but she really liked the challenge of working with chocolate. Her frst creations at home: raspberry and cayenne pepper trufes. Te biggest challenge in starting a business was increasing the amount of trufes and doing everything by hand. "I was used to making trufes at home in small batches and the largest batch was maybe like 200," she says. "Translating that into thousands was not as easy as I thought." Another challenge: making chocolates that can sit on a shelf at room temperature. "When it gets really, really humid in Louisville, something magical happens inside the trufe if you're not careful," she says. "It's terrifying to bite into something and fnd mold. Unless it's cheese." She only had one mishap like that. Currently, about 4,000 pounds of Cellar Door's best-seller, the chocolate-covered sea-salt caramels ($1.36 each), come out of the 5,000 square-foot kitchen in Butchertown Market per year. Tat's in addition to more than 12 varieties of trufes and other chocolates. Chavez-Graziano says she still works about 80 hours a week doing sales and marketing and helping out in the kitchen. Last year she and two business partners opened the Jackknife Cafe, a breakfast and lunch place in Butchertown Market. Chavez-Graziano says she feels like all her hard work paid of when she could hire people for the kitchen and retail operations. "Being able to employ as many people as I do (10 total), that makes me feel like I've made it," she says, then adds: "When I pay my bills, that's how I know I'm successful, too." Yudofsky Furriers 2225 Holiday Manor Center Founded in 1924 STIR CRAZY Erika ChavezGraziano and one of her chocolate confections. How do you compete with inexpensive retail giants? "Fur is practical, as well as beautiful. There's nothing warmer out there. Furs are investments, and we spend a lot of time with customers, helping them fnd what's best for them. People come in who knew the owner as a child. You don't get any of that at most retailers." — Craig Layne, advertising manager 2.14 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 45