UPDATE: This location is closed, but Charles Chocolates has re-opened in the Mission District.
The day after Valentine’s Day 2010, Cacaopod & I went to the Westfield Centre in San Francisco — Cocoa Bella still carries local chocolatiers Recchiuti and Michael Misher, and Bristol Farms had reduced their chocolate selections to almost the why-bother level — BUT Charles Chocolates has just moved in.
We talked to the staff there and found out that Charles Chocolates has closed their Emeryville location (no more chocolate-manufacturing watching) and relocated their kitchen to the Metreon — but there is no store or cafe there. You can find some Charles Chocolates at other stores, but the most complete selection will be in the Westfield Centre.
(Although when we visited, they’d just been open 2 weeks and didn’t have everything the old store in Emeryville had. But that is probably just a result of switching kitchens, etc.)
We are happy for Charles Chocolates that they have a better retail location (easy public-transit access, loads of foot traffic) and wish them the best of luck. And we will hope that in the future they will again put on a chocolate show for the public. Until then, you will have to make do with Ghirardelli’s truncated display at Ghirardelli Square (900 North Point Street, SF).
