Ask Cindy Pedraza about her mother’s first job and she’ll tell you the detail that stuck: she always smelled like chocolate.
That was the 1980s. Andrea Pedraza had taken a part-time job at Dallas’ first chocolate shop, and it turned into a 25-year career. She learned European technique, rose to head of production and became a master chocolatier. Then the recession hit, and mother and daughter lost their jobs around the same time.
In 2009, they opened a shop of their own and called it CocoAndré.
After three years without a storefront, CocoAndré is open again in Oak Cliff at 423 Centre St., a building the Pedrazas first eyed back in 2013. The old shop was about 1,600 square feet. The new one is more than 5,000.
CocoAndré started on West Davis Street. Later, Andrea bought and restored a 1917 cottage on West Seventh Street at the edge of Bishop Arts, where neighbors drank horchata and ate paletas on the front lawn. In 2023, the family sold the cottage, partly so Andrea, who had worked since she was 20, could slow down. Cindy promised then that CocoAndré would be back.
She meant it. In the meantime, the chocolates stayed on the shelves at Olmo Market in Elmwood. The Centre Street shop opened in early September, with a grand opening on September 26.
Downstairs are the café, the shop counter and a kitchen far bigger than the old one, turning out at least 600 pounds of chocolate a week, much of it for hotels and other businesses. Upstairs, a second-floor room is set aside for cultural events, classes and art shows. Family heirlooms fill the place, and it feels more like the Pedrazas’ living room than a store.
Andrea grew up in Matehuala, in the high desert of San Luis Potosí, and her work has always paired European technique with Mexican flavor. CocoAndré made its name on molded chocolates: the famous chocolate high heels, plus pan dulce, piñatas and cactus with tiny chocolate hearts standing in for prickly pear fruit. Her pecan turtles, made with caramel she cooks from scratch, have a following of their own.
This time around, Andrea is trimming the menu. It used to be very large, she says, and now it will be smaller and more exclusive, a return to authentic Mexican flavors.
The horchata stays at the center. The family started making its own dairy-free version in 2020, when the pandemic canceled their pop-up events, and the shop became CocoAndré Chocolatier & Horchateria. Cindy is certain they were Dallas’ first horchateria. The Centre Street drink menu adds champurrado, matcha, CocoAndré lattes, single-origin Mexican coffees and, for now, a seasonal pumpkin horchata.
Día de los Muertos is November 1 and 2, and CocoAndré is making chocolate sugar skulls for the season, along with a Halloween Boo chocolate lollipop. A sugar skull from a family chocolatier makes a lovely addition to an ofrenda.
CocoAndré Chocolatier & Horchateria is at 423 Centre St. in Dallas, 214-941-3030. For now it’s open Friday through Sunday only: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. The family plans to expand to Tuesday through Sunday, so check Instagram at @cocoandreoakcliff before you go. The chocolates are also still sold at Olmo Market, 2111 S. Edgefield Ave.
