As I drove up to a homey looking red single story building just off the main road in Sausalito California, I wasn’t sure I was even in the right place.  The units reminded me of l0 room motels in the 70’s with the line of doors and windows and only one story.   When I entered, I was struck by the size of the interior space and how warm it was inside.  It was the day for Dragonfly Cakes to be using the facility for production.  Stephanie Marcon shares the space with a fellow small business, alternating days between them.  Stephanie came to greet me and take me on a tour of the operation.   She pointed out the steel frames custom made to form the ganache for cutting, the roaster where they roast their own nuts and their hotbox where the tempered chocolate is kept.

We rounded the corner into the second room which was added after a year, doubling the size of the space.  Dragonfly Cakes makes delightful petit fours, and the same enrobing machine is used to enrobe them with icing as Stephanie uses to enrobe her chocolates.  The hardest thing about sharing is getting the machine clean.  Attached to the enrober is a home-made cooling tunnel, using cardboard for the tunnel and a free-standing air conditioning unit connected to the tunnel with what looks like a dryer hose.  Wonderfully creative and it works well.  The chocolates come out without any bloom.   Stephanie excitedly mentioned that they she is getting a new enrober with a professional cooling tunnel.

Next stop was the cool room where all work in process chocolates and finished goods are stored.   A baker’s rack stands in the corner loaded with centers waiting to be enrobed.  The process for Coco-luxe is to make the centers one day, cut the next, freeze them  for at least a couple days, thaw, cut and enrobe.   Individual acetate squares with custom made designs are dropped onto each chocolaste as it comes out of the cooling tunnel.  At that point they sit for at least an hour – the longer they sit, the more shine the finished product will have.  The original designs of the banana split, gingerbread man and the malt were created by Stephanie.  Now the pictures are created for Coco-luxe by a designer who works with Stephanie to bring her vision to life. 

In the beginning Coco-luxe offered only truffles, but they found lots of people like just a solid bar.  In answer Stephanie created the Happy Trails (trail mix of goji berries and pumpkin seeds), Monkey’in Around (coconut and banana chips), and Good Fortune (dark with candied ginger and homemade fortune cookies).  Stephanie loves nuts so the nuts were the easy next addition. Current offerings include chocolate coated roasted peanuts with cayenne and chocolate covered almonds with cinnamon.  Everything is done in small batches here.  For now everything is hand wrapped.   Stephanie toys with the idea of when it makes sense to automate the wrapping, but she would prefer to keep everything hand wrapped until they can’t keep up. 

After our walk we sat down to talk about the path that led Stephanie to this point.  She loved design and creating an idea – “something you can eat that also looks good”.  Stephanie worked in the tech industry, traveling through Europe and living in France for a period.  During her time in France, she became enchanted with the chocolatiers there.  After earning her MBA and 10 years working in the corporate area, she decided to go into food business.  She graduated from the pastry program at the Culinary Institute of America.  During school she learned that things like making bread were not for her, but wine classes were enjoyable, and her husband actually owns a winery now.  Wine tasting helped train her palette, which crosses over into chocolate tasting as well.  Stephanie commented that In school we are not trained to identify tastes or smells, so it is something we have to work at to learn.  After graduating, she made a few wedding cakes but that still wasn’t what she wanted to be doing.  She had enjoyed working with chocolate in school and decided to give it a try. 

Stephanie decided she wanted to work for Michael Recchuitti, a successful Chocolatier based in San Francisco.  She went to him, told him she wanted to start a chocolate business and wanted to learn how it works.  With a genuine smile, she remarked that he has best Karma ever and is just a really nice guy.  He has given her guidance along the way, and just asked that she not steal the recipes.  His operation is well run,  and it was good to learn things like how to scale up for holidays and all the things about running this type of business.  Michael Recchuitti apprenticed with MarieBelle (renowned chocolatier in New York) and Stephanie hopes to someday do the same for someone else. 

Testing recipes at home was the next step.  At that point there weren’t any incubator kitchens like there are now.    She liked the idea of creating chocolates that have a picture of what’s inside.  She spent 5 months in her home testing recipes. In coming up with the flavors, she knew she wanted something that was made with high quality chocolate but without the more exotic flavors. One day it hit her – do something very Americana like things we grew up with.  Coco-luxe is like Coco Channel, like Deluxe – the heyday of American culture.  With that idea in mind, she created gourmet versions of classic flavors – Andes mints, German chocolate cake and Reese’s peanut butter cups.  Her Afternoon Pick Me Up box is sort of an tribute to the 3 pm coffee or tea pick me up so many of us enjoy.  The newest item is canned cocoa, made from pure cocoa powder with added fresh ground chocolate.   With this product, she is going for a texture that is creamy and rich…wanting it to take you back to your past, but better.  Like cocoa from your Grandma’s house, on steroids.  New ideas in development include a toffee or caramel – but very Americana.   It is sort of a game to keep the flavor assortment fresh and changing, but at the same time in keeping with the theme of the company.   

When designing flavors, no extra sugar is added, and she keeps it simple, using fresh local cream and pure ingredients.  White chocolate is not her favorite, and she had a hard time finding one that was good - not too sweet or waxy.  The coverture she uses varies - mostly El Rey, some Guittard and some Callebaut.  Stephanie is careful to ensure that the chocolate base doesn’t add to or change the flavor of the truffle with its own undertones.   She likens it to making a good sangria – if you want headache, use cheap wine, but if use a good red wine and fresh fruits, it will be tasty.  In designing the look for Coco-luxe, she knew she wanted stripes and girly feel – that and the font are all she gave to the designer in the beginning.  The font is an homage to Piggly Wiggly,  which she sees as quintessential Americana.

Bi Rite market was first place to carry her product.  She lives a block away and walked over one day, handed them a box of her truffles and told them she had worked for Michael Recchuitti.  Coco-luxe didn’t sell online at first, instead providing descriptions of the product only. Last year they focused on getting the website up and running.  The current version of the site is the third iteration, including a new offering - gift cards.  This year Stephanie wants to focus on building up clientele, but she doesn’t want to be everywhere – she wants to stay exclusive.  When production gets too big, you lose some control of quality.  She feels a website has to tell your story –it’s an electronic representation of what you’re about.  As a part of her growth plans, she wants to have a store at some point as well.  Stephanie believes it’s the next logical step because it allows people to experience who you are.   Sampling the product really helps sell it, and she will also be able to test new recipes before rolling them out.

Currently working at Coco-luxe is one production lead and one packer/wrapper, working 3-4 days a week in production. Last year Coco-luxe shipped approximately 30,000 boxes of chocolates.  Sales are mostly via high-end neighborhood markets, where you might also buy gifts.  You can also find Coco-luxe in Sax Fifth Ave and on their website. Stephanie feels her product is very gifty and wants to be in places with other gift type items.   Finding the right location is key.  Recchuitti struggled for a long time doing farmers markets etc, but locating in the Ferry Bldg has really been a huge jump in his success.  The chocolates are designed to be something everyone will like – not Bay Area specific, and not just for those who eat Ethiopian food and want a thyme- patchouli chocolate for dessert.  She doesn’t want to be chocolate snob – she just wants to be good.

The hardest part for now is juggling all the different hats to run the business.  Balancing everything and not getting burned out is the key. Having production and administrative help makes things much more manageable.  Working alone for the first year, she was operating the enrobing machine by herself.  She would feed in 20 centers, run to the end of the cooling tunnel to decorate, transfer the finished chocolates and then run back and feed 20 more into the enrober! She recalls it was much like the famous I Love Lucy episode at the bonbon factory. Though not yet where she wants to be, she feels really validated that people “get ” what she is trying to do.  The definition of success for Stephanie will be having her own shop and being nationally recognized.  When having a bad day, asks herself what she wants to do with her life – and after thinking for a while, she realizes it would be exactly this.