Daley Blames - Who Else? - The Media For Oprah-geddon
Chicago Gets Googled
Friday Flashback - Old School Oprah
Today's Transgender Day of Remembrance Honors the Dead
Review: Paramount Room
.JPG)
Why, why, why does all of River North smell like chocolate and/or brownies? I get off the Red Line at Grand and I immediately crave chocolate. Can someone please explain?
Hello my chocolate bunny of the Red Line,
Another reason to love public transit! Your olfactory senses are being charmed by the delicious and tempting scents of the Blommer Chocolate Company, located at 600 West Kinzie. Since 1939, the Blommer family has been relentlessly teasing Chicagoans like yourself (along with the fine folks of Union City, California and East Greenville, PA) with the luscious smell of chocolate.
“The company’s three factories are located strategically across the United States, giving us the unique ability to respond quickly to our customers’ needs.”
(Ahem. Ask Chicagoist would like Blommer to respond just a bit more quickly to the chocolate needs we are experiencing RIGHT NOW.)
Unfortunately for all of us, Blommer does not offer tours of the Chocolate Factory. And it seems they don’t like inquiries: their receptionist hung up on Ask Chicagoist before we could inquire about the presence or absence of a Great Glass Elevator.
The smells are free; samples are not!
Need advice? E-mail ask(at)chicagoist(dot)com
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
receptionist hung up on you?!?!? aah, hometown chocolate with no manners, i will not be buying you!
i ride my bike by there everyday, and while it might smell good to the casual observer, when the wind is blowing right in your face and your pedaling your ass off going uphill... that is probably the worst smell in the world...
I wrote a song once about Blommer Chocolate:
We used to make all kinds of things here
These days we don't make them anymore
Times have changed our world got bigger
People moved out factories shut their doors
A few places have managed to hang on
In fact there's one just down the street from me
It brings a silly smile to my face every single day
It's the red brick Blommer Chocolate factory
It's a cold and gray midwestern morning
I grit my teeth and stagger through the snow
They're cooking up a batch to warm my spirit
At Jefferson and Kinzie, six-oh-six-one-oh
Progress dumped out Grandma's old gray icebox
And the coal hole's sealed up in the basement wall
The sweet scent in the air always reminds me
We're not long for this world at all
you used to be able to buy broken and deformed chocolate by the pound very inexpensively at thier factory store, not sure if you still can, haven't been in a couple of years.
this chocolate smell tortures me on a daily basis!!!!
Depending on what else is in the air -- and in River North, it can vary! -- that smell can turn rather rancid at times, I've noticed, especially on Ohio. Still, it's better than being in a number of other big cities, where the prevailing scent would be something more like sewage odor.
jen: You probably wouldn't by buying from Blommer even if they were polite. -- the sell to the baking industry. You used to be able to buy 10 pound bars of baking chocolate at the company store, back in the 80's. I don't know if you still can or not.
The factory outlet is still there. I was there about a year ago. Working at the corner of N Wacker and W Wacker, I should wander up there sometime.
I called the store. It is located at 600 W Kinzie. They are open 9-5 M-F and 9-1 Sat
Rance,
Blommer does make milk chocolate too - a lot if it in fact. They do private label chocolate for retailers, and make "world's finest" bars that are sold by many organizations as a fundraiser.
I always thought it smelled like parmesan cheese. anyway, it doesn't smell like any kind of chocolate that I would like to eat, like baker's chocolate. ick.
Actually, the World's Finest stuff is done at like 48th/Lawndale/Archer on the southwest side. They have their own big plant there.
When I was in high school, it would waft over onto the school and make me hungry.
YES YOU CAN SAMPLE! The store has little jars of various kinds of bulk chocolate to sample on the left wall. The bulk chocolate is especially great for making hot chocolate, baking, etc.; the untempered chips are perfect for baking and are dirt cheap.
The right wall has 1/2 and full pound bags of freshly made chocolate-covered nuts, fruits, and candies, all in milk and dark varieties. No samples there.
/pc
I teavel to Chicago a lot and I have actually toured the Blommer Factory. They are very nice people! Probably nicer when not hounded by the press :-)As far as samples, the Blommer store has many.