Stang, on the other hand, came to chocolate business later, realizing she had an affinity for the process while taking a course at the Culinary Institute inHyde Park.
“I was in the food business, and I’d been cooking for a long time and had some restaurant experience and my own little place,” she said. “But I decided to go to school and try to figure out what I wanted to do. I wasn’t really culinary trained. I came from art school.”
The two weeks of chocolate work at CIA proved to be the spark she needed.
“I really liked it,” she said. “It just seemed like it would be pretty easy to get started in. I like making little things with a lot of creativity. You can create your own flavors, and there’s a lot of art in it.”
Stang officially started her career as a chocolatier from her home inMountTremper, moving to the Route 212 location a short while later. But even then, she had hopes of moving the business into town, where she could benefit from foot traffic and buy a storefront that could double as a residence. In addition to Saugerties, Stang said she considered Rhinebeck,WoodstockandKingston.
“But I really love Saugerties,” she said. “I looked at a few buildings in town and this seemed to be the right one.”
Stang opened the new store in December, and has since expanded the offerings. In addition to small batch chocolates, the store now sells ice cream, espresso, vintage-style toys and had an in-house baker, Linda Laestadius, who operates Sweet Nothings, a business within a business.
But it all starts with chocolate. Stang, who was more of a fruit fan as a kid, said her sensibilities were shaped in part by what she didn’t like about a lot of store-bought chocolate.
“My chocolate is very intense and natural,” she said. “I think it’s more like I had eaten a lot of chocolates, like in the Schrafft’s box, and I didn’t like them. I like simple things. Like the sour lemon, it’s really lemony. It’s fun to try and figure that out.”
Once Krause realized his own shop and Lucky appealed to very different types of chocolate enthusiasts, he relaxed and saw the potential for coexistence.
“After I looked at what she has, it’s a different niche,” said Krause. “We’re more like really good chocolate that’s traditional, and they’re less traditional, more organic. After a while I settled down and realized they’re not really doing what I’m doing.”
While Krause’s has come to rely on their popular favorites, Karl hasn’t let the business rest on its laurels. Thanks to an attractive and very usable website, Krause’s has expanded its customer base well beyond the region.
“The main segment that’s been growing in my business is the shipping part,” he said, which is up 30 percent over this time last year. “That wasn’t previously available. If you wanted Krause’s Chocolate and you moved away, you’d be out of luck. But now loyalists can get it delivered. But we’ve put a lot of time and effort into the website. I just figure it’s our representation to the rest of the world, so I figure it’s got to be done right. That’s the future.”
As a result, people the world over are eating Krause’s chocolates.
“I remember hearing that a box was going to an ambassador toNorth Koreaor something like that,” Krause said. “We get orders from all over the world. Saugerties isn’t the sleepy little town it used to be.”
