Chocolatier Blue on Abbot Kinney opened up and quickly attracted locals who turned into regulars for its friendly atmosphere and home-made chunks of love. This Valentines day though will be this small businesses last day on the skinny.
Chocolatier Blue opened up on the skinny approximately 195 days ago and will shut down tonight — on Valentines Day. According to Samantha Salamone, the head pastry chef/chocolatier extraordinaire who personally cooks up fresh deserts on demand, “Due to a major investor in the company pulling out, they have to cut the Venice location. It was a dream job really.”
Chocolatier Blue on Abbot Kinney opened up and quickly attracted locals who turned into regulars for its friendly atmosphere and home-made chunks of love. This Valentines day though, it is their last day on the skinny. With an outdoor eating area people gathered for a fresh brewed coffee and some bite size lovable bits of high-quality chocolates. The level of quality each morsel is without a doubt a once in a lifetime experience. You simply have to head over there today and just polish some off. Get a box for your Venice love, even if you’re the only one in that relationship.
Non-corporate businesses can’t seem to stay still on Abbot Kinney. Rapidly transformation of the strip along with massive construction McMansions on the outskirts have made it impossible for small businesses to sustain any degree of “sustainability”, a word we are more likely to name-drop than actually consider the meaning of. How can a young chocolate shop sustain itself seems to be the question. The location had locked in a ten year lease at fraction of the cost commercial real-estate on Abbot Kinney is going for. What is next in line when Chocolatier Blue Venice shuts its doors tonight?
The last time this happened the rent was jacked up for the next business by 400% (Rent at a nearby storefront that is less than 1000 sq feet is $38,000 a month. Please repeat that a few times in your head. By New York Standards, restaurants on 42nd and 7th are $33,000 a month – entire restaurants.) By having to break a lease, the landlord adapts the rent to the moment and right now a blade of grass on the skinny is worth it’s nano-weight in gold. Locals now will witness a place that was just born and started to walk get bulldozed to make way for the inevitable.
Meet Dolly, the Chocolatier Blue Venice’s own dachshund-pitbull.
Today though customers still ride in bustling excited about their Valentines gift. Perhaps that box of custom chocolates they buy will bring it a special kind of love. Chocolatier Blue Venice however is breaking up with Abbot Kinney and it’s the quick cut-off kind where the person just kind of says, “You’re not good enough.” The word came down on Tuesday the closure was happening. Abbot Kinney was just too much overhead.
By having to break a lease, the landlord adapts the rent to the moment and right now a blade of grass on the skinny is worth it’s nano-weight in gold. Locals now will witness a place that was just born and started to walk get bulldozed to make way for the inevitable.
One of the many awesome things about Chocolatier Blue Venice was they have an actual desert chef who cares. Samantha comments about the loss of Chocolatier Blue Venice with near tears coming out of her eyes, “I just signed a lease down the block and moved here to Venice and now I’m out of a job.” That’s the human part of this place where once you were up and coming rapidly shifts into down and going.
Get your Chocolatier on now and say hello to Samantha!
Location: 1522 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice CA 90291