Gourmet Goodies

I was at the Chocolate Expo at the Morton Arboretum yesterday. It took some doing in looking up this place since a) I never got a receipt and 2) my packages were in simple white bags without a name sticker or card included. I wanted to write a review about how disorganized the workers were. I agree with the other reviewer… they were a mess regarding credit cards. The one lady took my order but then passed me to another guy to pay. In the midst of the chaos, one of them put my card down and couldn’t find it. Luckily, it fell under the table. No apologies or anything, just swiped and sign. Because it was so crowded and I was irritable regarding the credit card, I just left. Unbeknownst to me, the guy had shorted me a bag that contained white chocolate peanut butter cups. By the way, those little guys were not cheap either. I was going to call them but I didn’t have their info. Had to look on my bank statement. Reading what that other lady went through… I’m thinking never mind. I wonder if they did this with more people. Oh, well. Overall, the goods were nothing really special. They just had eye appeal. They tasted so-​so. The workers need better training in customer service.

Went to the Morton Arboretum for the Chocolate Expo. This store was poorly run. Yes, I understand that it was crowded but since they are a shop they should be better organized. I bought almost $ 50. worth of goods – Chocolate covered pretzel sticks, Chocolate covered Twinkies, Chocolate covered Rice crispies, fudge-​maple and creamsicle (missing), OREOs (missing), Cashew/​Pecan Turtles (missing). Half the goods were missing. The lady who tried to help didn’t know how to charge the credit card and passed me to another lady who was too busy to help. So I ended up with a blond guy who was helping another customer but stopped to charge my credit card and passed me my goods. There was no calculator or cash register either. I though the two little bags had all my stuff but no – things were missing. I tried to call them to tell them and the «Owner/​manager» yelled at me that they were not expecting so many people and that her mother was bilingual and doing the best she can (I’m sure that this older lady was). She also yelled that the Morton Arboretum people told her to expect 2000 people not the over 6000 people who showed up and that she didn’t have enough staff there. This is NOT my fault… I was just a customer who wanted to purchase goods from this store. So, why this lady was screaming at me on the phone. I as a customer do not deserve verbal abuse… so that is why I hung up. Keep the $$$ that I lost. Money isn’t worth that much that I have to be verbally abused. (BTW, I too am bilingual but would never scream at a customer).
Perhaps, the biggest problem is that this store has never had so many customers at one time, even though the manager lady said they had been at the Chocolate Expo at Navy Pier. They didn’t seem to have an organized plan. Here are some suggestions: First, there should only be one person helping a customer at one time. Two, there should only be one person to run the credit cards through. They offered no receipts of any kind. Per the lady who yelled, I could have gotten a receipt emailed to me. How was I suppose to know this if it was not offered by her employees. BUYER BEWARE: POOR customer service if you yell at the customer that you had too many customers and not enough staff. WILL NEVER buy from AGAIN.
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CHRIS W. — Perhaps, you work for the company since you seem to have a lot of knowledge regarding who works there. I think your review is fake one. Also, you mentioned that the one lady with the accent is the owners mom and that speaks a different language. That older lady was not the problem. It was her daughter the «owner.» The conversation the manager yelled at me through the phone. She did not give me a chance to speak. I have it recorded if you wish to hear it. I was trying to give her a chance but after spending almost $ 50. and being shafted the goods and then yelled at. Social Media was the solution to warn others. I have a right to review as I please just as you do. You got all of your goods that you «paid» for. I did not. I’m the one out almost $ 20+ in goods.
How did you know I didn’t give her a chance? Were you there? Want to listen to the phone call? Because when she started yelling my husband sat up from his chair and quick started recording with his phone.

Today I went to the Morton Arboretum with my girlfriend for the Chocolate Expo. First off the Expo was crazy busy, a lot of standing around, and pushing our way through the crowd was a nightmare. We were becoming inpatient with the crowed and were getting upset because we expected more out of this Expo.
We stuck through it and I am so glad we did. We entered this cafeteria part and we waited inline for what was the best booth there, Gourmet Goodies. When it was our time to order this older women was nothing but helpful. She did have a very thick accent, but was very polite and nothing but helpful. When it was time to pay she handed off our credit card to a young man, and told us she isn’t use to charging on the phone. Which was no bother to us because their Chocolate was to die for. I asked the young gentleman if it was the ladies booth, and he told me it was not, but it was his mothers and they are a family run business. He also gave me his mother’s business card. The rest of the staff was extremely polite to all customers even with being so busy.
After leaving the Expo I called the business in hopes of leaving a message, the young man mentioned they are closed on Sundays. To find out the owner of the business answered the phone. I told her she has a wonderful product, and they her chocolate covered bacon was amazing. She was nothing but polite on the phone, and provided me with more information on their product, and that they will be in other shows coming up next weekend.
They we nothing but polite, and very well priced. I am a fan of supporting family run businesses, and we will defiantly be returning customers.
As far as the review by Lee M., if you feel the need to leave such a long detailed review, maybe you should hear the other person out before hanging up on them. You should hear the person out, because you obviously did not give the owner a single chance to resolve the issue, but felt the need to criticize on social media.

Gourmet Goodies is a relatively spartan chocolate-​focused operation in the Fountain View area. I tried a whole bunch of candies from here, and liked them quite a bit.
Their main attraction is that they use 100% Belgian chocolate. The kid at the counter didn’t know what brand they used, but it reminded me of Blommer downtown, which isn’t a bad thing!
I haven’t tried the fudge yet (next time) but I did try the chocolate covered cherries, malt balls, toffee pieces and salted caramel pieces. They offer milk, white and dark chocolate options.
Surprisingly, I found the dark chocolate relatively featureless. I’m not sure why, which is why I’m going to reserve further comment until I try a good dark fudge. The dark chocolate pecan cluster was very good, with a soft and chewy caramel center.
The milk chocolate tastes a little bit richer, but I liked the white chocolate pieces the most, strangely. There was a pronounced but not overwhelming vanilla flavor that I liked in the covered cranberries and dipped cherry.
There’s ample variety, though nowhere to really sit. Most of the counters are empty, which makes me think that it’s busiest here early in the mornings when the place is actually being used as a production kitchen.
It’s a fine place to take your kids, and the abundance of «fill your own bag» choices is a good thing. Definitely worth stopping by when you get the chance!