Elizabeth, who doesn’t like last names, is a Santeria priestess. But while neither that–nor paranormal investigation, Russian Gypsy card reading, or “candle magic”–really pays the bills, her last stab at a straight job, in the sales department of her father’s electrical parts distribution company, didn’t quite work out either. “I constantly got into trouble because I could never keep my big mouth shut,” she says. “My father would call me into the office and say, ‘I don’t want to hear about ghosts and ghost hunting. I don’t want to hear about spells.’ That’d last for about an hour, and I’d get into trouble again.”
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He died in 1995, after which the business was sold and Elizabeth, who’s now 36, enrolled at the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago and the French Pastry School, where she took two weeklong intensive chocolate classes. “A resume of dealing in the occult world couldn’t get you too far,” she says. “I had to do something–get some skills.” But she didn’t want to work for anyone else, and she hated baking: “It was tedious.” Inspired by the success of Vosges Haut Chocolat, a local company that specializes in exotically spiced truffles, she decided to open a chocolate shop.
Eventually, despite the Dumpsters, traffic picked up. “It was total word of mouth,” says Elizabeth, who rarely advertises. “Most people came into my place because somebody gave a box to somebody else.” These days a steady stream of customers passes through the store Wednesday through Sunday to choose sweets from a glass case filled with glossy pink hearts, white Buddhas, metallic stars, purple jewels, and golden King Tut heads–but no truffles. “I don’t like to copy,” says Elizabeth.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/J.B. Spector.
