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Sweet
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With her new MiMo district shop, Paula Barth plans to bring
some of the world’s best chocolates to the Magic City.
As it often happens, a particularly harsh winter up north
turned into something sweet for Miami. In this case, it came
in the shape of a tiny chocolate shop that opened this past
fall in the MiMo District. Its owner, Paula Barth, who a decade
ago debuted her first store in Boston’s historic Beacon Hill
neighborhood and turned it into one of the city’s most respected chocolate
emporiums, set her sight on the 305 because she just “didn’t want to
face the cold anymore.” It also didn’t hurt that buzz and excitement kept
swirling around the up-and-coming MiMo neighborhood, where she and
her husband had bought a winter home years ago. “We started seeing
restaurants and boutiques come in. I decided that if good things are
going to happen here, let me get in on the ground floor.”
And so in October, she opened the doors to the Miami version of
Beacon Hill Chocolates, a gem of a boutique that tempts the most iron
of wills with more than 80 varieties of handmade, artisan chocolates
artfully arranged in glass display cases and apothecary jars. Barth sources
all of the treats herself, from small chocolatiers around the world who
make high-quality candies in small batches and by hand. “Chocolatiers
are artists,” she said. “If you have a passion for chocolate, you have a
passion for art. People sometimes don’t realize what it takes to produce
a handmade artisan chocolate.”
Customers can package their luscious sweets in keepsake gift boxes that
feature vintage and contemporary photographs of classic Miami scenes.
In addition to classic shapes, there are novelty candies such as chocolate
labs—puppy-shaped, of course—and kittens for cat lovers. The cozy shop,
decorated with striped wallpaper, whimsical photographs and plaques that
praise chocolate, also offers nuts and Italian-style gelato.
So what’s different between the Boston and Miami markets? Up north,
Barth said, peppermint has proven more popular while Miamians reach for
flavors like key lime, passion fruit, lavender and ginger. “I’m still learning
about this market,” Barth said. “Boston is very homogeneous. Miami is
very multicultural, and it’s a hot climate. I’m reinventing myself.”
It’s not the first time. She opened the original Beacon Hill Chocolates in
Boston partly because she wanted a good chocolate source—for herself. “There
was nowhere there to get really good chocolate, and I love chocolate,” she
said. After waiting two years for the right space to open up, she plunged into
her new venture. “I had no business plan and no retail experience,” she said.
“But I knew what good chocolate was, and I was confident I could learn the rest.”
TEXT BY JANA SOELDNER DANGER / PHOTOGRAPHY BY FELIPE CUEVAS
Beacon Hill Chocolates, 6318 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami; 305-560-5300;
beaconhillchocolates.com.
40 INDULGE | FEBRUARY / MARCH 2016 | www.miamiindulge.com