{"id":11130,"date":"2018-09-25T18:25:04","date_gmt":"2018-09-26T01:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/?p=11130"},"modified":"2024-04-19T12:39:22","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T19:39:22","slug":"compact-chocolate-capitol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/outsidechocolate\/compact-chocolate-capitol\/","title":{"rendered":"Compact chocolate capitol"},"content":{"rendered":"

In May 2018, Cacaopod and I took a 16-day trip around northern Europe. We had several focuses: art, trains, and chocolate!!! The last post\u00a0was about a\u00a0well-curated chocolate collection<\/a> in Amsterdam. This time we overwhelm ourselves with Belgian chocolate.<\/i><\/p>\n

The entry into Brussel by train from Amsterdam was a bit of a let-down. The train station is a dreary 1960-70s concrete bunker, devoid of charm or decent signage. The neighborhood it’s in looked somewhat run down, but not scary \u2014 at least not when we were just breezing in and out of town in a day to check out Belgian chocolate.<\/p>\n

\"Brussels
Brussels train station emergency chocolate, if you don’t have the time to get out and explore the city<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I love Paris, and I love French chocolate, but after a short visit to Brussels, I feel a little torn. Like a lot of people, my first exposure to Belgian chocolate was Godiva, and I was not impressed. But in Brussels, I skipped Godiva and the other biggies, Neuhaus and Leonidas (I can find them easily elsewhere), and found Belgian chocolate to be on par with French chocolate. While Brussels is a little rough around the edges, its high concentration of artisan chocolatiers and chocolate shops in a small area made for a great chocolateering day trip.<\/p>\n

Pierre Marcolini<\/h2>\n

Pierre Marcolini is a luxury brand of chocolate but without the attitude. We found the chocolates tasty and the shops comfortably chic. Unfortunately, they don\u2019t ship to the US, which is a good excuse for a trip to Europe (or Hawaii \u2014 they have a store in Honolulu).<\/p>\n

We encountered 4 Pierre Marcolini<\/a><\/strong> stores in our afternoon in Brussels. (There are 6 in a 2-mile radius in Brussels proper.) The first, Rue des Minimes 1 (Place du Sablon), was impossible to overlook since the building was covered with slowly turning pinwheels, which was a theme repeated inside the stores too, celebrating spring. Two of the stores were in Galeries de la Reine, the beautiful old covered pedestrian mall that was full of Belgian chocolate shops.<\/p>\n