Chocolate Shop Readies for Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day has special meaning to Beth Verbeck. Her son was born on Feb. 14. This year he will turn 9 and to make the day even more special for her son, Verbeck tries to pick up an extra-added treat.

She was buying some chocolate treats for her son Luke while at the store in south Naperville.

“It’s a good holiday to be born on,” she said.

During her trip Friday, Verbeck was buying heart-shaped chocolates and chocolate-covered brownies. While it is her son’s birthday, she also tries to play up Valentine’s Day so he doesn’t feel like he’s missing out, she said.

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory will see a influx of shoppers seeking the perfect sweets for their sweet, an employee said.

In between helping customers, Betsey Lupole, a sales clerk at the store, was also putting the finishing touches on a wine bottle that was dripping with chocolate, one of the store’s big sellers. Customers bring in their own bottle of wine and for $18 the store drips chocolate all over the bottle. As drinkers enjoy the wine they break off bits of the chocolate to eat.

A number of bottles were waiting in line to be decorated in chocolate.

Along with its special wine bottle treatment, the store also has the standard heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, a variety of truffles and another of its well-known items, hand-dipped taffy apples, for customers to choose from.

But, the most popular item at the store over Valentine’s Day is the chocolate-covered strawberries, Lupole said. The store will sell over 3,000 strawberries through Valentine’s Day.  Along with dipping the berries in chocolate, they will add other toppings if asked. The strawberries are $24.95 a pound, which is usually about eight to 10 berries, she said.

While things weren’t too busy early Friday at the store, Lupole was ready for an influx of customers.

“It does get very hectic and we always have a line out the door on Valentine's Day,” she said. “We always try to focus on one customer at a time and make that customer feel special.”