Photograph by George Sakkestad
You want chocolate? Kathleen Martin owns Sweet Creations.
By KATHERINE PETERSEN
Sweet Creations may not have rivers of candy like Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, but it offers enough goodies to make any chocoholic swoon. The shop has a range of delectables, from cashew clusters to chocolate-dipped apricots and prunes.
Owners Kathleen Martin and Debbie Dodaro make most of their candies in their South Murphy Avenue store. The process includes breaking up 10-pound blocks of white, milk and dark chocolate, and melting them to cover a variety of sweets.
Martin and Dodaro opened the business in June 1995 because they couldn't find chocolate-dipped strawberries. After fiddling in their home kitchens, the two felt confident enough to sell their delicacies to the public.
"When I was growing up in Sunnyvale, we used to have Bee Ritchie downtown, who had [the strawberries]. We wanted to continue the tradition of having chocolates in the older section of the city," Martin says.
Neither Martin nor Dodaro misses her corporate career much. They seem happy to be out of the rat race of optical character recognition software. It's unlikely Martin will fall victim to downsizing in her new chocolate career.
Martin admits the transition from software to chocolate is unusual.
"This is something totally different. I love being creative in putting together gift baskets and boxes," she says.
Her creativity shows in the window displays. Passersby can get a glimpse of white and dark long-stemmed chocolate roses in a vase, in a floral box, and combined in a gift box with a stuffed Dalmatian and a box of old-fashioned nonpareils, flat round disks of dark chocolate with white chocolate speckles to match the dog's spots. And nobody can miss the big, white, cuddly teddy bear hugging a box of sweetheart truffles, heart-shaped confections filled with creamy peanut butter.
Sweet Creations fills orders for weddings and showers and will make custom orders with a couple of days' advance notice.
The shop has some fun, ready-made packages, such as the police set including chocolate handcuffs, a billy club, a walkie-talkie and a badge. Chocolate lovers can also purchase medical, tool and golf sets.
Diabetics and others who watch their sugar intake are not left out of the picture. The shop carries a full line of sugar-free chocolates.
Martin and Dodaro use Guittard chocolate for dipping, which they say has a creamy richness that lingers, unlike the flavor of some chocolates, which disappears right away.
Some customers stop in for a chocolate tidbit after lunch or dinner and others buy a box at a time. Gift boxes cost an average of $11 each.
The store will extend its hours during the Valentine's Day week.
Sweet Creations, 152 S. Murphy Ave. Tue.-Fri. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Fri. evening from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m, Sat. from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. For more information on orders and delivery, call 245-0222.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, February 5, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.