Sure, I'll probably get hate mail for this review, but that's fine. I'll just toss it on top of the pile with the others. First, let me temper this (pun intended) with the fact that I rarely eat chocolate. Not that I don't like it, I just stay away from sugar in general. This means that when I do indulge in chocolate it has to be, how do I put this, fucking awesome. We wandered in the other evening after dinner at Beer Engine and decided to see what they were all about.
The bottom line, Fear's is OK. They're a very small specialty chocolate shop whose niche appears to be molding chocolate into Star Wars-related shapes. The nerd in me thinks that's pretty cool, don't get me wrong, but I'm still wrestling with what really would make me want to come back.
They've got a single, 4-level display case with about a couple dozen or so different candies, most of which aren't really anything different than what Malley's has been doing for a hundred years. Peanut butter cups, chocolate covered Oreos, I think they also make brownies but I don't remember seeing them. We're more fans of truffles and filled chocolates, so we were a bit disappointed when we were told that they don't really do those types of products. Oh well. Support local and all, right?
They've also got coffee and tea, handmade marshmallows, and some locally made products scattered about.
We were greeted as soon as we walked in and the guy was friendly enough. There was one thing, though. He did stand there, motionless and silent, staring at us as we perused the display case. That was a bit weird, but whatever. It's not like I wanted him to sing us a song or something.
We picked up a couple of different items on our visit including some haystacks (Black Widows), buckeyes, their Snickers knock-off called a Snookers, sponge clusters (toffee bits in chocolate), and a couple of dark chocolate sea salt caramels.
Total Bill: $9.25
Everything was tasty and fresh. No complaints there. The Snookers bar was light on the caramel, but yummy. The sea salt caramels were ooey-gooey and great. Nothing beats that salty/sweet combo for me. Wasn't all that jazzed about the sponge clusters and my wife really enjoyed the haystacks and the buckeyes. It was all, well, good. So why only 3-stars?
The pricing structure rubbed me the wrong way. I mean, I get that you're a small business, small batches, yadda yadda yadda and you've gotta make a buck, but charging $1 a piece for marble-sized buckeyes or $1.50 each for tiny caramels? C'mon, man. I'm not a cheap bastard, really, I go out of my way to support - and pay more to do it - local businesses. That's cool. Just seemed high.
So there you have it. If you need a chocolate Yoda head or Death Star, Fear's is your shop. I don't get all of the 5-star ratings on here, though. It's good for what it is, a tiny little boutique shop that molds Star Wars characters in chocolate, but it just doesn't hold any real draw for me. I can see people stopping in for Christmas gifts etc., and I do hope they stick around because local business and all, but I doubt I'll be a frequent visitor.