St. Louis’ Sweet Life Started in Bed

 By Elaine Viets

Putting chocolates on hotel pillows began when screen legend Cary Grant stayed at the Mayfair Hotel in St. Louis. The debonair Grant used chocolate to send a sweet message to a woman friend.

Is that story true? I sure hope so.

Another major star has a St. Louis connection. Lauren Bacall asked a Vanity Fair interviewer to open a box of Bissinger’s chocolate bark for her. Bacall confessed that she’s gotten free chocolate from the St. Louis chocolatier ever since she said "Bissinger’s is the best chocolate" when she starred in the musical "Applause" in St. Louis in 1971.

Some women have all the luck. Bacall got enduring beauty, Bogie – and free chocolate for the rest of her life.

St. Louis was settled by the French and the Germans, nationalities that celebrate sweets.

You already know about German chocolate, Dutch chocolate and Belgian chocolate.

Is there St. Louis chocolate? St. Louis chocolate maker Brian Pelletier at Kakao Chocolate says no. "We’re all so different. Other local chocolate makers, Bissinger’s, Merb’s and Lake Forest, have their own traditional approaches and familiar flavors."

Brian sees these trends in St. Louis chocolate lovers: Customers want "all-natural ingredients. We don’t use any artificial flavors, colors or preservatives," he said. "Our truffles and caramels use real cream and we give them a shelf life of three weeks at room temperature."

St. Louisans like "local ingredients. We use local honey, lavender, fruit, coffee and locally blended tea in our confections."

Brian even adds local beer and other off-beat ingredients. "We buy a lot of inclusions – liqueurs, flavored oils and vinegars from Vom Fass – and use Schlafly beer, too. Our customers enjoy a lot of unique flavors in our creations: honey, balsamic vinegar, Earl Grey tea, smoked tea, absinthe, stout."

Kakao has two St. Louis area shops, one in Josie’s Maplewood and the other in south St. Louis. This suburb,  more than 100 years old, says it's "somewhere between Mayberry and Metropolis." Maplewood has one of the coolest shopping districts in the country. 

Are you drooling for St. Louis chocolate yet?

In my new mystery, "Death on a Platter," mystery shopper Josie Marcus has to sample St. Louis food. One of her sweetest assignments is to try Kakao chocolate in Maplewood. She wants her best friend Alyce to go with her, but Alyce is reluctant, with good reason. The last time they went mystery-shopping together, a customer was poisoned.

But Josie didn’t have to use much persuasion to change Alyce’s mind. All she needed was a few rationalizations. This scene from "Death on a Platter" is set in the Maplewood Kakao shop:

They stood in the doorway and inhaled. "Chocolate, my favorite perfume," Alyce said.

The shop was tall, long and light-filled. A bright-painted red tree hung with dark cocoa pods spread across the walls. But the chocolates, displayed in little baskets like works of art, captured their attention.

"Dragees!" Alyce said. She noticed Josie’s blank look and said, "Almonds toasted in sugar and dredged in chocolate. I have to get those. Almonds are good for you."

"A source of protein," Josie dead-panned. "And chocolate is good for your heart."

"Definitely a health food. And a vegetable."

"The only vegetable I truly like," Josie said. "I’ll get some of those for Mom and my daughter."

"I want that coffee bark covered with locally roasted coffee," Alyce said. "Locavores are good for the environment."

"What’s a locavore?" Josie asked.

"People who eat locally grown food," Alyce said.

"Not only are we eating locally, we’ll walk off the calories locally," Josie said.

"I could walk all the way home and I wouldn’t be a pound thinner," Alyce said. "But I’ll be happier if I eat chocolate."

"That’s the spirit," Josie said. "Don’t forget the sea salt caramels and the marshmallow pies."

"With Missouri pecans," Alyce said. "Dr. Oz says nuts are good. I love wicked virtue."

                                                        ***

I’ll sign "Death on a Platter," my seventh Josie Marcus Mystery Shopper novel in St. Louis, Thursday, Nov. 10 to 13. This mystery celebrates St. Louis food, with a side order of murder. There will be sweet treats  at all the signings. Check out the details at www.elaineviets.com

Comments

[Dana]

Best of luck on the new Josie book, Elaine! And this locovore likes a good sea-salt caramel, too!

[Elaine Viets]

They're pretty tasty with Missouri pecans, too, Dana. It's important for me to support local businesses.

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Yummy! Cheering you on, Elaine!

[Ford Dealers St Louis]

I'll definitely want to try a taste of Bissinger's cholates famed sweet morsels next time. I am a chocolate-holic but never knew that St Louis was home to such a well known chocolatier.