The North Shore holds stiff competition for a new chocolatier.
Some of Vancouver’s best confectionaries are set up on this side of the bridges and cover the gamut from truffles to pralines to seasonal creations, with a healthy side of pastries for good measure.
I suppose, however, that calling the latest Daniel Le Chocolat Belge a “new” chocolatier is misleading. The Vancouver-based sweets empire, owned by Belgian-born and trained founder Daniel Poncelet, has been around since 1981. Over the course of nearly four decades Poncelet’s all-natural chocolates have found favour not just throughout British Columbia, but indeed all the way across the country.
I didn’t see a lot of fanfare for the opening of the Lonsdale Avenue shop, the latest in the Le Chocolat Belge collection. Perhaps when you’re a bigger player these occasions become routine.
Or perhaps there is something else at work here, a certain assurance based on millions of chocolates sold that a new location will resonate automatically, drawing on a solid reputation and legions of loyal fans. Or maybe I’m just not great at reading press releases.
Whatever the case, I wandered into the new location recently without any preconceptions or expectations to influence me. I’ve had Daniel chocolates a number of times before; a considerate neighbour consistently supplies a nice box of truffles in exchange for checking her mail while she’s on vacation. I was surprised to discover, however, that this retail location of the chocolatier sells a whole lot more than the various moulded chocolates that I associate with the brand.
Fresh-baked pastries feature heavily alongside macarons, espresso-based beverages (Milano Coffee is Daniel’s supplier) and teas, and the shop offers an array of savoury lunch items like sandwiches, including tuna salad, egg salad, ham and cheese, and brie and apple.
Because I couldn’t resist the rare opportunity to reify a common English expression, I brought my daughter Blondie into the shop with me and had her stand in front of the expansive display of chocolates. As the massive selection became apparent to her she was, at that moment, overwhelmed, just like a kid in a candy store. (That was so worth it.)
Daniel boasts that its chocolates are all natural and preservative-free, with no artificial colourings or flavours and no hydrogenated, vegetable or tropical fats. It’s quite a feat to stick to that approach when you consider the voluminous selection in any given Daniel location, not to mention their online order business. Inventory turnover must be significant because of the 40 assorted chocolates Blondie and I ultimately chose, not one was anything less than silken, luxurious and fresh.
For those who, like me, can become crippled by indecision in the face of extensive choice (what one might call the “Netflix Syndrome,” marked by watching more trailers than actual shows), Daniel has a nice assortment of pre-packaged boxes that offer a good overview of the shop’s style.
After an ill-fated attempt by me to convince Blondie that dark chocolate is infinitely superior to milk chocolate (you have to let it melt, kiddo, and not crunch your way through it like it’s a Kit Kat), we agreed to take home Daniel’s Classique Grande box of 40 chocolates, featuring a well-considered assortment of goodies. The box is great value at $45.
Describing every chocolate in the box would be an eye-rolling bore for most, I suspect, so let me just highlight the standouts: Tequila Sunrise, a bright, orange-frosted dome with a subtle hint of the eponymous liquor’s distinctive aromatic heat paired with citrus; Feuilletine Praline, triumphant squares of chocolate filled with crispy layers of sugar and toasty nut paste; Lemongrass Curry truffle, a counterintuitive and novel combination of perfumed central ingredients that worked shockingly well together in a sweet; and Coconut Ganache, delicate rectangular chocolates filled with ripe and round tropical flavour.
I would also give a shout-out to the Calamansi Ganache, a strikingly artistic creation with a vibrant cerulean blue finish accented by bright orange splashes, reminiscent of a Miro canvas.
Blondie and I also opted to take home half a dozen pastries, including a fantastic coffee accompaniment, Daniel’s Torsade Chocolat (chocolate twist), a seemingly simple but deceptively delicious braid of chewy, egg-washed pastry with dark chocolate that had just the right amount of sweetness to enhance a double espresso without becoming cloying or dominant.
Daniel’s Feuillete Apple was an elegant and dainty pastry, consisting of light and flaky puff pastry topped with uniformly sliced, caramelized slices of apple with a lemon glaze, while the Poire Bel Helene was a lush and indulgent Danish-style confection made with croissant dough filled with vanilla bean custard and Belgian chocolate chips, topped with pear. A bag of Madeleines revealed an unusual approach to the notoriously fussy treats, made here with sizeable morsels of bittersweet candied orange rind. Other pastry offerings include Mille Feuille, Pain au Chocolat, Brioche, Croissant and scones. Pastries are $3.50 on average.
Daniel le Chocolat Belge is located at 1667 Lonsdale Ave. danielchocolates.com 604-983-3138
Chris Dagenais served as a manager for several restaurants downtown and on the North Shore. Contact: hungryontheshore@gmail.com. North Shore News dining reviews are conducted anonymously and all meals are paid for by the newspaper.
