National Philadelphia Candy and Chocolate Show

Which is held in Atlantic City at the Convention Center. Go figure. There are two of these. One in September and one in January. It was very worthwhile for me and I think for Kim. Not only did I get to meet and meet with a bunch of people, but we had some very interesting adventures.


First we stayed at the Borgata. Very nice. Here's Kim's nook in our nice large hotel room. What a treat. She loves a great reading or knitting nook. This one had a fainting couch. Kind of. Two piece chair with ottoman.


We ate at the Metropolitan Cafe, which reminded us of Austria.


The lobby.

Kim did a small amount of gambling. I lost $5 and she won $6.75. We we came out ahead.

Isn't she just beautiful. BTW, all of these photos were taken with a disposable, not digital, however and Kodack put them on a disc for free. I made reservations at Wolfgang Puck's American Grill, figuring it would be a low end, OK, place to eat and lo and behold, Aram from Spago Palo Alto, you know, a good working man's lunch, was the chef at Wolfy's place. Aram took over from Michael French. They closed Palo Alto. So, Alec is now working for the corporation and Luke, our poor, lost Luke is at the Sundance Steak House. Sigh. Next time we're in CA, we'll have to go and see him.

Kim and I thought that the food had never been better. Attaboy! The steak Tartare was heavenly. Here we are. He came out twice to talk to us. We went back the next day just for the steak Tartare before going to Ol' Homestead. Still the best steak Tartare I have ever eaten. Well done!

The ceiling of the American Grill. Those are fall leaves. Very cool.

We also ate at the Ol' Homestead Steak House. Nice. We had leftovers which we left in the room by accident. Dang'er. Of course, one of the reasons I went to the show was to check out Hilliard but also to talk to ChocoVision about getting my machine back. Things are heating up for me and I need it. So I took pictures of Ian and the guys.

Wait, this isn't Ian, this is Joe, a chocolatier and consultant for ChocoVision. Great guy. Very helpful.

No, this isn't Ian either. Hmm, where's Ian. Can anyone find Ian? ;_)

This isn't Ian. Rather, I had a long talk with Elaine Gonzalez. I really want to buy her book. She's a doll. And a great artist. Maybe, one day, she'll teach a class at the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops. (Check out our blog.)

Here are some people we met in the lobby. He's a barber and she worked for a drug company. We had a chat about Documentum. Documentum is mentum plus docu..... Still no Ian.


Are you Ian? "No," says Bree, "I'm not an Ian, I'm a dog." Nope, no Ian. (Will you look at that silly dog? What a funny shot!)


Hmmm. Is Ian up there? Nope. No Ian. Where's Ian?

Well, we have come to the end of our time with you. I hope you enjoyed the Philly Candy Show pictures. Enjoy. Next time, we'll find Ian. I just hope that he sends me a loaner Rev X.

Exciting News: ChocoVision, Web Store Update, New Resale Customer, more on the way

Well, Kim and I went to the Candy Show, I'll put a separate entry for that as soon as I go get the pictures. Fun. Wonderful. I finally saw the Hilliard 6 and 10 inch coaters. I can hardly wait to get one. The one problem, I'm going to have to sell at least 10X more than I currently am. So, my faithful, start ordering. With the current sale, how can you go wrong? Answer: you cannot. And hey, faithful, start commenting. (Rog, I told you you can cut the sugar in the nog by 1/2 in the blog entry and yes, use the 10X not granulated. You culinary guys, what will you think of next?)

ChocoVision: I met Ian and of course Joe. Funny. Ian looked EXACTLY like I pictured him. A shorter, smaller and younger Nathan Stark. I didn't expect younger, btw. I expected Ian to be older. Question is, is he an award winning physicist? No. Chocolatier? No. Nice guy? Yup. He also promised me that I would get a temporary Rev X. So, if that happens, Ian will be elevated to do the do no wrong category. Joe is already at that category. ChocoVision needs better technical leadership. Actually, Ian offered me the VP of Engineering job. I think he was 1/2 joking. It was temping but they couldn't afford me so that's how I know it was 1/2 joking. The big news, I should be getting my Rev X loaner this week.

I almost have the web store done. Almost. I have the pictures 80% done and I have the other content 100% done. Kim is doing the html. We tried to get Holly but she's booked. Holly is a great web designer but, then, so is Kim. We're using osCommerce. All the new, smaller pictures, I've put up on the blog are the same ones I'm using on the website. Check 'em out.

I now have a new resale customer. Hilltown Market & Natural Food CO-OP. You still order chocolates from us, 518-966-5219, but I also wanted to advertise for our new friends. If you need natural foods, these guys are great. I was using Honest Weight in Albany, but I'll be switching. Plus they want to market my granola and I'll be doing an organic version for them.

I've been chatting with other retailers as well. I'm very open to resale. Hint, hint. I don't know if I have any distributors among the faithful out there...

Pictures coming.