My Saturday afternoons are usually reserved for brunching and studying, but Saturday Feb. 7 was reserved solely for dessert. Instead of a classic Geneseo Family Restaurant breakfast, I found myself feasting on gourmet mini-cheesecakes and painting with molten chocolate.
The Geneseo Merchants Association’s first annual Chocofrolic provided a unique weekend event and a chocolate-covered sugar high for students and community members alike. Chocofrolic encouraged attendees to venture into the cold and explore 16 Main Street businesses with a fool-proof incentive: free candy. The Valentine’s Day-themed event played a similar role to other regular GMA festivals like Autumnfest and the fall and spring wine strolls. It made for a great date, a fun shopping trip or, for me, an excellent opportunity to gorge myself on chocolate in all shapes and forms.
The Chocofrolic home base was at a business I had rarely ever entered: Brows, Brazilians & Bikinis, Inc. Here, The Lamron design editor senior Lara Elmayan and I accepted the Chocofrolic challenge to visit all 16 participating businesses and get a special card signed at each stop. Everyone with proof that they had visited all the businesses was entered into a raffle for a chocolate gift basket. We also received our first chocolate of the day: Grateful Dead bear-shaped fudge.
Among the most notable stops on the frolic were the Not Dot Shop, which gifted chocolate-covered Oreos and the Big Tree Inn, which provided supplies for chocolate painting and a screening of the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
Two new Main Street businesses orchestrated soft openings for the event in preparation for their official openings later in the week. Cricket’s Coffee Company charmed me with samples of espresso brownies, coffee and artisanal cinnamon hot chocolate. Sweet Arts Bakery didn’t offer any free samples, but the exposed brick inside indicated a promising future for the business in my eyes.
As an avid supporter of Main Street shops and restaurants, I am proud that the GMA plans so many events to generate a buzz in Geneseo. While attending Chocofrolic was half the price of the Autumn Wine Stroll in October and certainly more family-friendly, the event still has room to grow.
There was chocolate available at each of the businesses, but some of them stood out much more than others. It would be nice to see each of them on more even ground.
My roommate and I didn’t make it to all 16 businesses––we were a bit overwhelmed by the abundance of chocolate about halfway in. We were determined, however, to check out the chocolate wine tasting at Valley Liquor Shop.
In the end, Chocofrolic was a bit like the chocolate wine: delicious and exciting, but a little too sweet.