Belmont Shore Chocolate Festival

My girlfriend, lil bro, and I went here earlier and it was packed. There are a lot of people since it’s also Saturday. We went to the front of Chase so we can get our $ 10 for 12 tickets, which it is a pretty sweet deal. We tried the Chocolate covered Rice Krispy from Legend’s Sport Bar and it was good. One of the items I remembered cause it’s gooey, crispy, marshmallowy, chocolatey goodness. We walked next block towards PCH and tried chocolate covered items such as oreos at Peet’s Coffee with a complimentary brewed coffee. The chocolate covered oreos are delicious as well. Then we went to Taco Surf and they served Chocolate Tamales and is my favorite of all this festival’s item. Taste like tamale, but in a deep chocolatey flavor. Super gooood and can’t say no more :)
Moving on, next stops are Cheese Addiction’s cheese brownies and Brix in the Shore’s Bacon Chocolate Bread Pudding. The cheese brownies are ok and the Bacon Chocolate Bread Pudding is the bomb! It is quite unique. Mixing chocolate and bacon together is an excellent idea. Salt and sweet together almost always are the better pairing. Then we went to Roe Express, they serve chocolate bars; their popular one is the Macha Green Tea chocolate. Unique and melt in your mouth sweetness! Next we went to Shannon’s for the chocolate martini, but costumer service sucks and they are lazy to serve us cause the reason is they’re busy, which is not an excuse if you signed up to serve in this Chocolate Festival. That was a dissapointment, but moving on.
Lastly, we went to Frosted Cupcakes and guess what they serve chocolate cupcakes and this time is for cheaps. 1 ticket per cupcake is a really good deal, so we decided to spend our last tickets in it. Each of us ordered 3 cupcakes and 9 overall. Too bad, we didn’t get to try the Urban Table’s chocolate menu, however we had fun trying each and every restaurant’s chocolate samplers. I was going to give it a 5 star, but Shannon’s costumer service mess it up for us.
PS: Hopefully, next year they’ll make at least until 6pm so we can try more

The chocolate is pretty lame but a fun event. I wish they had a map of the participating vendors online. So, here’s a photo of the flyer.

Checked this out yesterday and had a good time but would love to offer some advice for the organizers.
1. The event needs to be longer than 4 hours
2. The cash only for tickets was annoying
3. Some vendors ran out or were running out of product two hours into the event.
4. When we asked where to get tickets some of the vendors didn’t have a clue.
5. The area where they judged the desserts, the people were rude. I tried to ask some of them a question and was ignored. Just because you won a bake off, doesn’t make you gods gift.
So with that said I will most likely return next year, because a good amount of the desserts and treats were excellent.

Did you say Chocolate Festival?!
This was the first time I have been to this annual extravaganza and I had a great time.
The highlights for me had to be the chocolate tamale and the chocolate crêpe. I wouldn’t say either were fantastic but they were pretty good and hit the spot. I’ve never had or even heard of a chocolate tamale before and couldn’t imagine needing one more the once a year.
The cannolis were good, but nothing super exiting and I finally had some chocolate covered bacon (which I’ve had on my «I have to try this someday» list for a WHILE now).
All in all it was fun to walk up and down 2^nd street and gobble up a bunch of random sweets. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon.

I go here every year! Why? Because I live less than 5 minutes away and I love chocolate! Unfortunately, I only give it 3 stars because of a few things. There are several restaurants that sell their chocolate delicacies, but there definitely needs to be more to make it feel like a festival. They also have some contests, but very few from what I remember. There needs to be more games and activities to get the community more involved. Also, some of the restaurants I feel have overpriced some chocolate items, and they’re not worth the amount of tickets they ask for. I think the best place (also the one with the longest line) is the Rocket Mountain Chocolate Factory. Of course, it’s their business, so everything is chocolate and they have way more options. I’ll still go every year, just for the fun of it :)

This was the first time I had heard about the chocolate festival yet I went to college at CSULB and never knew about it!
My girlfriend, me and her cousins drove out to get our chocolate tasting on. Luckily we found free parking nearby and walked over. Now the hard part of this entire experience was trying to find a restaurant or store to buy tickets. We saw no sign or mention anywhere where you needed to buy them. After walking for 15 minutes we found a chocolate stand and was directed to a hair salon to buy them. I thought we were sampling chocolate not hair…
After buying two packs of 12 tickets for 10 bucks we set out for some chocolate. Our problem was the lack of stores that actually sold the goodie morsels. Moreover, it was not all chocolate that was sold. The name should have been «Belmont Shore Dessert Festival.» The stores were far and few between. When we did arrive at a store, most lines were quite long. Fortunately most of the chocolate we tasted ranging from Olives to Frosted were good. Portions were worth what you actually paid for.
For example, the bigger the piece the more tickets it cost. The most expensive item was a candied apple for 5 tickets at Rocky Mountain Chocolate factory.
The only way to find a chocolate stand was to look for either a long line or colorful balloons on the sidewalk.
This festival would have been better if it had more participation, not such long walks to stores and more signs.
Tip for next time. If you wait until the very end, the chocolate ticket prices will be reduced depending on the amount of chocolate they have. Some stores had originally 3 ticket items that were reduced to 1 ticket!
I do not know if I will return, I would recommend they hold this event in a park or close off a street somewhere near Belmont Shores to make it easier.

This is happening this weekend:) both days:) enjoy:):):)

chocolate WASTEDDDD
Awesome idea, who doesn’t like chocolate? Not many I guess because this event gets crowdedddd
Chocolate all around, sounds like a good time to me! Its a great way to taste what the restaurants and bakeries have to offer along Belmont Shore

ONE OF THOSE DAYS TO WALK AWAY… long lines, sold out samples early in the day. Door to door chocolate is not the way to get my coco fix!
We strolled right on back to our house, got in the car and hit up the chocolates at Bristol Farms!
Years ago it worked, but not anymore…

Good idea, needs more planning.
Great weather to be outdoors, but overwhelming foot traffic.
Great parking adventure, for those who like to drive around.
This area too small for all the people who attended.
But, let me tell you about the Chocoate Cake from La Strada, Red Velvet cupcake from Frosted Cupcakery and get this Red Velvet yogurt/​Dutch Chocolate yogurt from Yogurtland… YUM! YUM! YUM!

This was a fun little event to hit up before you go party at the bars in Belmont Shore. We walked around to various stores and sampled numerous chocolate desserts. There was also a chocolate baking contest where prizes were awarded to the best entries. If you love chocolate and are looking to have a good time without spending much money… this is a great event!

I had fun.
If I didn’t come to the chocolate fest, I would have spent my afternoon watching TV in the living room. This was definitely more fun.
For $ 10 you get 12 tickets. Most places have samples for 2 tickets.
Here’s what I had:
Cream puffs at Legends
Chocolate and Raspberry Gelato at La Strada
Mini-​pizooke at BJ
Sample of Chocolate yogurt at Pinkberry
Cannoli at NY Pizza
Frosted had mini-​cupcakes, La Creperie was making fresh crepes out front, and Yogurtland was giving full-​sized servings of chocolate yogurt with chocolate sprinkles. Those all had pretty big lines.
If you had tickets left over toward the end, Rocky Mountain Chocolate factory had a huge selection of chocolates (chocolate covered pretzels, bacon, twinkies, etc.) and various caramel apples that were redeemable with vouchers.
Overall, it was a fun afternoon. I had a sugar coma at the end of the festival… I tried to dull it with some fish tacos at rubios.
For those of you who are thinking of going in 2011, I recommend going early to eat a small lunch, to beat long lines in front of the best vendors, and to have less of a problem with parking.
By the time I got there at 2pm, some of the vendors already ran out of their stuff. Also… don’t expect huge portions. Just have fun walking up/​down belmont shore, enjoy a good lunch, and sample lots of chocolate!

It was definitely a worthwhile activity for the afternoon. I’m not saying you should camp out for the next one, but still. We showed up around 2:30 (the festival’s official hours were 1:00 — 4:00), but we definitely didn’t miss a thing. Maybe the blood orange brownies from We Olive. Damn…
[Belmont Shore has miserable parking. Deal with it.]
I bought:
— 1 chocolate crèpe with nutella, strawberries, and whipped topping (La Crêperie)
— 2 red velvet mini muffins with cream cheese frosting (Frosted)
— 1 bag of white chocolate bark with cranberries and walnuts (Powell’s Sweet Shoppe)
— 1 slice of chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting (don’t remember…)
All of that cost me 7 tickets! I probably could’ve dropped another 5 tickets on red velvet cupcakes, but alas. Anyway, with all the leftover tickets, we decided to brave the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory line for an HOUR. Ouch. But some lady gave up and donated her tickets to our cause so we had 16(!) tickets to splurge when we finally got the front. I gave them all to my friend since I had no desire to figure out all the possible permutations of what I could get with 16 tickets (caramel apples, chocolate/​caramel apples, chocolate bacon, chocolate-​covered pretzels, chocolate-​dipped licorice, chocolate-​dipped graham crackers, twinkies, oreos, you name it).
10 bucks, 12 tickets. And when you’re averaging 2 tickets a shop, that $ 10 stretches quite a bit.
Plus if you stick around long enough, some chick might give up her tickets. SUCKA!!!
Oh and Crêperie, if you’re reading this, next time, just spend the extra couple bucks and buy some real whipped cream, will you? I mean, it was still delicious, but come on…

Meh… it’s ok, 2.5 stars.
Since my daughter is a chocoholic, we decided to check out the festival after doing our share to clean up the local Belmont Beach of debris.
Basically, the Belmont shore businesses provide tasting and gave out samples of various chocolate items. Most chocolate goodies where between 1 – 3 tickets each.
We thought the event would be in a centralized area, but you have to go to each businesses’ storefront. Fortunately the location of the Belmont Shore strip makes it easy to walk around. It was a bit crowded and some long lines later in the day but it was a fun way to explore some of the local businesses in the area. Parking is always a pain in this area even without something like the Chocolate Fest going on.
It was decent but nothing to write home about.

After debating to go, I finally decided to go since the weather had cleared up. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but a «festival» is not quite what I experienced. All it was was a few stores giving out chocolate goodies. The one that made me scratch my head was BJ’s handing out sorry looking chocolate chip cookies with a little scoop of ice cream. What kind of chocolate fest is this? and why is Taco Surf handing out chocolate? Seriously!
The other annoying thing about this festival was that there were only 4 places that I would say have quality chocolaty products. All of the rest are just ploys to get you in their stores!
Now just think, four stores that have quality chocolate=extreme long lines just to get a little cup cake or chocolate morsel. The line for Rocky Mountain Chocolate factory was around the corner of the street! The best one was when I was at the Frosted Cupcakery where I waited in line for a good 10 min and had at least 30 people behind me waiting for a mini-​cupcake of chocolate or red velvet to find that when I got to the front of the line I got the last cup cake, lucky I guess, but it sucks that everyone behind me had to wait for nothing! No one from the cupcakery bothered to come out and mention that they were running out of cupcakes.
I would say don’t waste your time with this event, there are other places you can pass 2hrs of your time and feel it was somewhat significant. The best part of coming here was finding an Indian buffet for lunch.

I originally was going to go to this event then, I decided not to because of the weather, However, after some consideration and finding out that some Unilocal Friends were going I decided to go.
I parked on Clairmont at 1:40 PM and crossed at the light on the next signal over and began strolling on The Shore House Café side. I didn’t see much in the way of chocolate delights, just every 3 stores some trays or stands outside of businesses with chocolate goodys.
I started to see more stands as I began coming closer to Corona. I then kept walking, more stands with what looked like different types of chocolates treats. Some in plastic containers with cakes, cup cakes etc. Also, I did go into Frosted Cup Cakery to snag 4 cup cakes for later.
I crossed over and went into Fingerprints to see if one of my Unilocal friends was in there since she said she would be going there first. I hung out for about 25 minutes and then proceeded down the Legends side of 2^nd St. and saw more of the same… more of the same… more lines… more crowds and obstructed pedestrian stopping annoyances.
I approached Corona by Sweet Jill’s and saw what appeared to be a tent with a bunch of variuos chocolate edibles but, I did not venture in because it was like the crowd when royalty used to give birth in the Marie Anntonette Period.
I then ventured on and finally made it back to my car and left. I was home by 2:30 PM and thought «that was exciting… to a degree I guess».
Pros:
Good weather although a few sprinkles along with ammonyous skies.
People and kids having fun.
Nice Eye Man-​Candy.
Frosted Cup Cakery.
Cons:
No signs on where you could by the $ 10 ticket booklet (I finally asked someone after being told «no not here» 10 times).
One after another of utilitarian presentations of chocolate delights.
Crowds and lines along with people spilling and smudging chocolate on passer bys. (Lucky for me I escaped that).
Nothing astounding and I get the concept but just A-​Okay for me.
My Unilocal friends cell phone was out of service so, we couldn’t call or text each other to meet up.
Kudos to andrea v. for submitting it; for those who enjoy this type of thing… cool but for me MEH.

One word– Chocolate. Yummy chocolate.
The weather turned out to be pleasant. That’s a bonus. My wife and I arrived approx. 230pm. Parking is always crazy in Belmont Shore, but we were lucky enough to find a parking spot quickly.
I overheard this one guy say– «yeah, see what women would do for chocolate.» Well as the saying goes, «give me chocolate and no one gets hurt.» It was a nice turn out, but the lines were long in some places. This is the first time I’ve been to this event and a friend of mine was also competing for a prize in the local battle of chocolates. She made an amaretto cake ball lollipop chocolate covered treat. Yum. Good texture and the flavor was excellent.
La Creperie had the longest line in my opinion, but it was worth it.
Café La Strada had their raspberry gelato and a blueberry gelato, although the girl that was serving the gelato said that the blueberry gelato was raspberry. It was great, but my wife was served one that was half melted.
One thing I learned, arrive early and come in a group so that if there are lines in your favorite spots, then you can all split up and get the goods a lot quicker.
2^nd Street is cool because it is very dog friendly and it was nice to see the cute furry dogs walking around. I was surprised that there was a station that catered to dogs. It looked so good, had the guy not given me the information that it was only meant for dogs I would’ve eaten Fido treats.
The price of the booklet was $ 10 and it contained twelve tickets.
If you make the rounds to see what each different store front had to offer (not too many participants, but enough to fill you up) then it made it really easy to determine where you were going to use your ticket. Some places did accept cash.
Next year I will definitely try to make it to We Olive, I love that place. They always have the best treats, especially during stroll and savor during the summer time.
Its like PMS heaven! If the girls happen to be riding the crimson tide then you’re luck– this is the place to be.

*** Chocolate Fest was not the best … ;(***
But we had a good time, I must confess.
The sun was out, even a rainbow appeared.
It’s just too bad, better chocolates weren’t here.
My lil son was excited, trembling with glee.
He bit the first cake then looked sadly at me.
So we moved on to search for lil dark delights
’til we stumbled upon pookies … gooey, alright!
The pookies were good, but really just a tease.
Son wanted more … this was a fest, you see?
So we continued along Second looking for more.
Blindly seek’n chocolates … going door to door.
Finally we saw Andrea & Erin; oh, what a sight.
They bought us some crepes without any fight.
We avoided that line. Devoured these crepes.
They were strawberry filled, chocolatey draped.
Son quiped «more». I said «you gotta be kid’n»?
So we scampered along for somethin’ mo’ fit’n.
Soon we reached La Strada, an Italiano café.
Mousse filled with gelato really made my day.
I ate this with pleasure; I was happy as can be.
My lil brat said «oh nooo … none of that for me»!
So to Jamba Juice we went, where he gotta smoothie.
I gulped a wheatgrass shot; hmm, that’s kinda groovy.
After a day of this fest, kid had to getta juice to smile?
That tells me that this fest must improve after ‘while. ;(
*** For 2011: quality and organization must be better. ***

OMG! The Chocolate Festival is the best ever! Yes, there are some lines, but don’t let that deter you… it is all so much fun. Come early and have lunch at one of the many restaurants on 2^nd St. and then stroll and enjoy all of the many chocolate treats.
La Strada will be serving our many types of gelato truffles, including the Dark Chocolate Amore and Chocolate Raspberry star. We will also have our Chocolate Violet Mousse as well as Fudgy Chocolate Brownie cookies, Mississippi Mud Brownies and Chocolate-​covered Salt Caramels… how could you NOT come!!!
Don’t worry about the parking — if you’re willing to park on a side street and walk one block, it is no problem at all… promise! See you at the Festival!

This is for the 2009 festival (5^th annual), heard about it from Tam N. Since bf is a chocoholic, had to check it out.
What: Belmont shore businesses provide tasting/​samples of various chocolate items using tickets. Tickets were available at the event for $ 10 for a book of 12.
Who: La Creperie, Crêpe Lady, Sweet Jill’s, Frosted Cupcakery, Yogurtland, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Peet’s Coffee, Polly’s Gourmet Coffee, Olives Gourmet Grocer, BJ’s Brewery, La Strada, We Olive, and Romance Etc. that’s most of them.
Goodies (anywhere btwn 1 – 3 tickets each)
–Olive grocer — chocolate ganache tarte w/​sea salt
— La Creperie — chocolate crêpe w/​nutella, strawberries, and whipped cream.
— BJ’s — mini pizookies
— La strada — mini gelato cakes
— Crêpe lady — crêpe filled with melted chocolate
— Sweet Jill’s — red velvet cupcakes and chocolate covered strawberries
— Frosted cupcakery — mini red velvet and chocolate/​chocolate cupcakes
— Yougurtland — fro yo with toppings and chocolate sauce
— Also other various businesses brought in artisanal chocolates, brownies, and treats.
Lowdown: I thought it would be a centralized area, but you have to go to each businesses’ storefront, but Belmont Shore lends to walking around easily anyway. A bit crowded and some long lines later in the day (especially at La Creperie and Sweet Jill’s), but it was a fun way to explore some of the businesses in the Belmont Shore area. Come early since parking is always a pain even without something like this going on. Looking forward to next year!