Chocolate Heaven

Our second day in Chicago I treated Susan to a guided chocolate tour (best idea ever!) of the financial district in Chicago. We were the only two people on the tour and our guide was a bubbly opera student who holds six part-time jobs! We started at my favorite chocolate shop in the world Leonidas. Oh, how to describe the deliciousness that is Leonidas? I could eat them all day long, every day. They make me so very happy!

Hmmm, in this photo it looks suspiciously like I HAVE been eating chocolates every day for hours on end! All of this traveling lately has not been kind to my gut. I'm working on it.

Look inside that case - every one of chocolates is pure heaven in a dainty little package!


We had samples in all of the shops we visited (except Godiva's - they were rather rude and I find their chocolate sub-par and way overpriced - trust me, find a Leonidas and thank your lucky stars you read this post).

This was our favorite new shop. They have a wall of chocolate where they sell over 300 different kinds of gourmet chocolate bars! The owner gave us a tour and let us sample somewhere like seven different bars of chocolate! He was so friendly and kind and both Susan and I bought a fistful of new chocolate varieties to try. THEN, he gave us a free bretzel which is a hot baked pretzel stick thing that was sooooo tasty and soft and warm and if you're headed to Chicago, you must get one - or six.


Then, as if that were not enough, we went to the pastry shop next door and had white chocolate cheesecake!!! Look at these cakes - aren't they gorgeous?


We also tried some Frango chocolates at Macy's and their frozen chocolate mint cake as well. By the end, we were rolling ourselves into a taxi. But, not to worry, we felt well enough a hour or two later to stop by another famous Chicago pastry shop (Sara's) for amazing carrot-cake cupcakes. Hey, carrots are a vegetable!