by Adam Sachs
A little over two years ago, I received a phone call at work while my bosses were at the Dallas Market Center. I was in charge of sales for a tea, coffee, and chocolate shop, and a woman was interested in showing us some chocolates she had made. Her name was Katherine Clapner, former Pastry Chef of Stephan Pyles who was starting a business called Dude, Sweet Chocolate, for which she was making chocolates out of the kitchen at Empire Bakery. When she brought samples about an hour later, my taste for chocolate became eternally altered. She played with flavors like Roast Beet, inspired by the original devil’s food chocolate cake, and Oaxacan dark chocolate mixed with paprika and cocoa nibs. These were the greatest chocolates I had tasted.
On Thursday evening, Clapner and her crew combined the shop’s one year birthday with the Bishop Arts District’s Cinco de Mayo Wine Walk festivities. Her staff was decked out in sombreros and matador garb, while she sported a costume that made her the splitting image of Selena. Buckets of Hornitos mixed with tamarind and infused with cinnamon sticks were available as DJ EZ Eddie spun everything from Curtis Mayfield’s “Superfly” to Porno for Pyros’ “Pets.” Continue reading
