Andelman

Now you're sounding like Gillian. I don't think there's anything wrong with a customer asking this question - they're almost literally like kids in a candy store, and find themselves faced with numerous unfamiliar options before making a quick decision to part with their money. They're trying to engage you and ask for your recommendations - why don't you reply with something like, "everything we sell is good; now, let's try and figure out what style of chocolate you're looking for." A lot of people, for example, might have a strong preference for the salted caramels over the bourbon-filled chocolates. Why not indulge them?

(As an aside, I've learned over the years not to ask this type of question in restaurants with inexperienced servers. ("Oh, people love the spinach and artichoke dip - it's our best seller!" (And it's often a pile of glop.)))

Cheers,

Rocks

And what is wrong with sounding like Gillian?

I understand what they are asking, and our response is usually very similar to what you said.

It is just an odd question to ask (in my mind). Like I said, why not ask specific questions, rather than just saying "Is it good?"

To be fair, I think most people asking this are really asking "what is that one like?". People like validation before they make a choice, particularly before they spend money. I think if you answer the question "this one is really dark, a bit bitter if you like that style, with just a hint of peppermint" (or whatever) I think that would satisfy most of them.

Then why don't they just ask "What is that one like?" I understand people needed validation, and we usually do a pretty good job of explaining which are the most popular, darkest, etc...

I would never go to a restaurant and ask the server or chef, "Is that dish good?" I don't know, maybe it is just the semantics of the whole thing....

Still bugs me though.

Dealing with asshats is just part of being in business. Keep it polite but stick with your policy. You can't please everybody.

What we need now is a good Landrum rant on entitlement.

Re: Landrum rant

You know, all I have been thinking about lately is Michael's quote from a few years ago, where he said something along the lines of " the a**holes outnumber the decent people by 10-1" (or something like that). I am not sure the ratio is that high, but we have certainly noticed an increase in entitlement since we moved to Clarendon. I mean, 99% of our customers are great and we really, truly appreciate their business. Unfortunately, it is the 1% that causes so much grief and makes you write 5:30 AM rants on an internet food board.

And since I am ranting, one other BIG pet peeve of mine is when customers ask ME (or any of my employees) "Is that one good?" How am I supposed to answer that question? If I didn't think it was good, I wouldnt sell it. People need to think before they speak. We get that question multiple times a day.

Yes, we do have a sign up. I made the sign as polite as possible, so people would get the hint that I am trying to be fair to ALL our customers. We also mentioned in our email newsletter that went out last week, that there area limited supply of bunnies and that they go quickly. I am really not sure of what else I could have done. The other thing, is that te woman was very aggressive from the start. If she had politely explained why she needed 3 boxes, we probably would have said no problem.

I had this same problem my 1st holiday season. I was basically running the Lee Highway shop all by myself and was running out chocolates on a daily basis. I had to initiate a box limit, and it really pissed a bunch of people off. Some customers just couldn't understand why they couldn't get EXACTLY what they wanted. I was like, "dude, look at me in this shop, all by myself. It isn't Walmart!. I can only do so much..." Very annoying.

How do you all feel when there is a limit on the number of items you can purchase in a store? Here is the story:

We make these salted caramel bunnies for Easter, and sell them in packages of 4 and 9. Unfortunately, we only have enough molds to make about 200 bunnies each day, so I have a limited number to sell. Therefore, on the couple of days leading up to Easter, I put up a very polite sign saying "in all fairness, we would like to limit the number of boxes to 2 per customer/per day..." most people don't seem to have a problem with this, get their 2 boxes, and go on their way. However, this one lady comes in yesterday and has a big fit about the limit, insisting that she NEEDS 3 boxes. My employee was very polite to her, explaining that we had a box limit and were trying to be fair to all our customers. The woman would have nothing of it, telling her "WE should just be happy that she wants to spend SO much money in our store" (BTW, it was like $25 worth of stuff she was buying, so it really wasn't that much money, relatively speaking). I had to come out and get involved, again explaining the policy. She couldn't understand why I would do this, and said, "well if I don't buy them, then someone else will, right? So what difference does it make?...". I was starting to get pretty irritated, as I was already have a rough day (based on an effing Yelp review that was totally off the mark and a total stab at me on a personal level, check it out if you wish..) and I was about to tell this lady to keep her money and go find chocolates elsewhere. I didn't. I gave in and reluctantly let the baby have her bottle and she walked away with her 3 boxes of bunnies.

Sooo, I was just wondering your opinion on this practice. Should I just do away with the box limit and quickly run out of that particular product? I was just trying to be democratic about the whole thing, but it doesn't seem to work....

Thanks for letting me rant. Yesterday was one of those days when I just wanted to lock myself in the office....

-j

"Old Pal"

Rittenhouse Bonded Rye, Campari, Dolin Dry Vermouth

I love me some Campari!

It's official. I now spend more money on Jason's chocolates than I spent on coke in the '80's, Batard-Montrachet in the '90's, and emergency generators and Roquefort in the '00's.

And guess what? They're even better at getting me laid.

I am glad I can be of assistance. I feel like a drug dealer and pimp all rolled up into one.

Just FYI...

We are having an all day tasting this Saturday (3/13) from 11 AM-7 PM. We are changing some flavors and we hope you all can make it out to try out the new ones, which include:

Dark Stout (made with Bell's Double Cream Stout)

Hazelnut (a layer of hazelnut praline with caramelized cacao nibs, topped with a layer of 66% ganache)

64% Bittersweet (a new varietal, using a chocolate made from 100% Dominican cacao beans)

Irish Whiskey (a milk chocolate ganache with Jameson 12 Year). We will have this one for just a couple of weeks to celebrate St Patricks Day

We will also be sampling our brownies, Fleur de Sel Caramels, and a few different plain chocolates.

And finally, we will be selling off the 3 old flavors at a deep discount (while supplies last).

It looks like it is going to be a dreary day, so please stop by for a little pick-me-up at some point on Saturday.

Thanks,

Jason

Truth be told about the music in the dining room...I'm a huge classic rock fan and I put it on for Sunday brunch as "wake up music" for the guests as well as myself and my staff. The channel never got changed between Sunday and Tuesday night. We usually play pretty chill adult contemporary music...certainly never John Tesh or techno music though. Usually more of just a cool, relaxing vibe. Think Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise, Blind Melon, Johnny Cash and that vibe of music.

Shaggy, please stop lying. We all know you are a HUGE John Tesh fan.

That would be a great score for the hood. It's funny that Missy Frederick calls that location "near Clarendon". Uh, not really....

Health code does vary by jurisdiction. Especially in terms of our of refrigeration display of foods. When I was with Whole Foods, certain stores inthe DC/VA/MD triad were allowed to have cheeses out of refrigerations, some not at all and others in between. It can also boil down to your particular health inspector. What is OK in DC may not be at National Harbor.

Yeah, but the CL cupcakes are refrigerated in DC, MD, and VA. I don't think jurisdiction has anything to do with it.

I had a cupcake at the National Harbor location. It tasted like old refrigerator smell. They said they by law have to refrigerate them.

Ridiculous. So I guess that means that Georgetown Cupcake, Baked and Wired, Hello Cupcake, and the myraid of other cupcake places in this town are "breaking the law"....

I don't get it.

Why is this necessary? Lists like these, by nature, are exclusive. This means excluding all the hard working people in our industry that don't have expensive press machines pumping them up at every opportunity. Just my opinion.

Well said.

Try one of their chocolate covered marshmallow hearts next time. A modestly priced treat that's big enough to share (if you're my big hearted 6 yr old).

Thanks. We try. BTW, those marshmallow hearts will be available the end of this week along with various other V-Day goodies. (Salted Butter Caramel Hearts, Cassis-Rose bon-bons, and a couple other things.)

I just got back from Minerva Express on Lee Hwy just west of Glebe between the Subway Sandwich shop and A1 Indian Groceries. It has 3 or 4 tables but they will be mainly a carryout place. They were still bring in equipment so I grabbed a menu for tomorrow. If they are anywhere close to the Minerva in FFX they will be a hit here in Arlington. I am looking forward to trying them out, any suggestions? I like my dishes hot, so I was thinking starting with the chili pakora and trying the goat biryani, though the vindaloo sounds good as well. I will try to enclose the temporary menu.

I know that space very well.

Yelp, like any publication, makes its money selling advertising - no mystery there. And like any publication, they are persistent and insistent and annoying. However, our experience with Yelp has shown them to be unethical and very, very shady - beyond normal publication standards. Having heard tales of Yelp "banishing" good reviews for restaurants refusing to advertise/do business with them, we have been avoiding their "representative" for months. We finally got a message that no further contact would be attempted on their part - hooray! Within that same week, we stopped receiving notification to our email account regarding new postings/reviews on our Yelp site. We also noticed, when trying to respond to a negative review, a "compliment" to the Yelpee who had posted the negative review. The message was from a Yelp representative (she identified herself as the DC Community Manager for Yelp) commending the reviewer on their negative review and, in essence, agreeing with their complaints on our dish. After contacting the ONLY person at Yelp who we could get on the phone - the sales rep we had been avoiding - we were met with complete indignation. He stated that the Yelp representative who responded was doing her job in promoting people to comment and review. He also refused to provide any phone numbers to customer service, the Yelp representative, her boss, or anyone else. We were only able to get a complaint email address to - you guessed it - complain about Yelp to Yelp. Here's the exact address to see her comment: http://www.yelp.com/user_details_thanx?userid=yg1MEPk0MNb_jCrrkfsexQ

On another interesting note - I have searched the website all OVER trying to find some way to contact them. No phone numbers. I google-searched customer service numbers for Yelp. Nada. However, in the "contact us" portion of the site, they have a topic listed "missing reviews." If you click on it, you get this startling bit of information: The review may have been suppressed by Yelp's automated software system. This system decides how established a particular reviewer is and whether a review will be shown based on the reviewer's involvement on Yelp. While this may seem unfair to you, this system is designed to protect both consumers and businesses alike from fake reviews (i.e., a malicious review from a competitor or a planted review from an employee). The process is entirely automated to avoid human bias, and it affects both positive and negative reviews. It's important to note that these reviews are not deleted (they are always shown on the reviewer's public profile) and may reappear on your business page in the future.

That's it, nothing more, no way to follow through with your complaint. They even indicate that if you DO complain about missing reviews, all they will do is send this information back to you.

They have us by the balls, and there isn't a damn thing you can do about their unethical behavior. When, oh when, will someone FINALLY expose them for what they are doing to the businesses they are supposed to be supporting?

I think nobody is making them at the moment, but a few years ago we bought a candy-dot making machine for the kids to play with. Still around here somewhere...

I bet you could find them at a Cracker Barrel. Or, you could certainly order them from candydirect.com (if you are really jonesing for them )

Ok, the candy dots were like crack to me as a child. In fact, is there any definitive proof they aren't crack?

Hm.

I fully expect this post to get deleted, but in the meantime: mmmmm. tasty, tasty pastel-colored crack-dots...

Really? I always got bits of the paper in my mouth, which was fairly unappetizing. I strictly went straight for the Fun-Dip and those giant chewy Sweettarts. For all of you candy heads out there, you should defintely read the book "Candy Freak" by Steve Almond. Pretty amusing book.

Nothing a good peep joust won't remedy.

(ladies and gentleman, start your microwave engines)

(toothpicks, set)

(go!)

What is a peep joust? From your description, it sounds like you put them in the microwave and then see which one pops first..Something like that? Anyway, probably a much better use for the peep rather than eating it. Seriously man, I never understood the appeal of those things. Sugar blob coated with sand. Nar-sty. And now there is an entire store devoted to them? The funny thing is, I bet that store sells more in a day than I do in a month.

My next venture will be a store devoted to circus peanuts and those candy dots on a piece of tickertape paper.

Excellent! That is worth a try. I will report back.

Dear Catherine and Goodeats-

I feel betrayed.

I love the new space. It looks great. The only tiny suggestion I would make is to have some kind of description on display of what is in each kind of candy. That information was available in the old location, as I recall, and I had a bit of a fumble going into the new store to order chocolates while not remembering what was in what. I had looked at the website beforehand but hadn't written down the information. (I needed to mail order chocolates for someone who will only eat dark chocolate.) The employee I dealt with was wonderful about getting the information for me, but having it right out on display is pretty helpful.

Good luck with the new shop!

Funny. We actually had a sign up with all of the descriptions for the first few weeks. Honestly, nobody ever looked at it, so we changed it out with a sign about shipping, classes, etc... Maybe we will have to find room for both signs. Thanks for the heads up.

-J

My latest Yelp experience.

We were contacted by a Yelp "advertising rep" a few months ago about paying to have our best reviews moved to the top of the page, the first to come up, better links, etc, etc... They wanted us to pay like $300 or so for this 'service'. I declined, saying I didn't think that was what Yelp was all about. The guy on the phone was very aggressive and called me back every couple of days until finally (very forcefully) told him to never call me again. Well, now everytime I get a new 5 star review, it mysteriously disappears the next day. It was happened twice in the past week, as I get a notification when a new review is posted. The next day, said review is gone. Vanished. I guess this is my punishment for not paying to advertise with Yelp.

Yelp can blow me.

Thanks to all that made it out to our grand re-opening on Saturday. It was nice to finally open for business to such a large crowd of folks. I hope everyone likes the new shop and new chocolate flavors. We are very happy in our new location and are looking forward to some good synergy when Bakeshop (cupcakes and other baked goods) and Screwtop (wine bar, cheese, charcuterie) open next month. If you are in the hood', please stop in and say hello.

Best,

Jason

According to the website, November 14 is the grand opening at the new Zoso Flats location in Clarendon. With a bakery and a winebar soon to open, this is going to be one great block.

http://www.artisanconfections.com/

TSchaad

Yup. November 14th is the big grand (re)-opening of our new shop in Clarendon. We will be having a free tasting all day (11-8 PM) so please come by and check out the new store. We will be sampling some of our new flavors (Orange-Cardamom, Malted Milk, Blood Orange w/ Star Anise, Raspberry-Tea, Dark Rum) and some of our old standbys as well (Fleur de Sel Caramels, Crispy Peanut Butter Bars, Pecan Caramels, Brownies, etc...) We are really happy with the way the new place shaped up and hope you will be too. Hope to see you on Saturday!

Artisan Confections has a big 50% off clearance sale going on right now through Friday, their last day in this location. 50% off boxed chocolates and loose pieces. I went yesterday and they were seeing brisk business with the sale. For those who are a huge fan of the alcoholic flavors (like me!), scotch bon bons are available as part of the 50% off clearance.

We sold out of everything this afternoon, so we will be officially closed for good at the Lee Highway location on Friday 11/6.

Just FYI, we are in the process of relocating our shop to Clarendon this week (starting tomorrow). We will reopen at 1025 N. Fillmore St on Saturday 11/14 with an all day (11-8) open house/tasting. Please check out our website for directions. I will send more details about the open house later next week.

Thanks,

Jason