Shana Elson is many things: Sister. Elvis fan. Former real-estate attorney.
But she wears her newest title on a patch sewn on the front of her blackchef’s coat: Chocologist.
The wordhints at the proprietary process Elsondeveloped so that customers ofTop This Chocolate, her new shop at Ventura Harbor Village, can create chocolate bars customized with gummy bears, assorted nuts and/or edible letters in eight minutes or less.
“It’s near-instant gratification,”she said of the treats, available in patrons’ choice of dark, milk or white fair trade-certifiedGuittardchocolate that can be seen cascading like ribbons from commercial tempering machines lined up just behind the counter.
The shopalso sells customizable cups of still-liquid chocolate, locally roasted Brazukacoffee and pre-decorated squares andbars in flavor combinations with names like “It’s Nuts of Never” and “Salt Me Tender.” The latter is studded with kettle chips, Goldfish crackers and miniature pretzels.
Quietly open since late September, Top This Chocolate will mark its grand opening from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday.The event will include door prizes, a raffle and, at noon, aVentura Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting.
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“It can’t think of abetter place to be,” said Elson, who moved to Ventura from Culver City,where she launched Top This Chocolate as a mail-order cottage-food operation fromherone-bedroom apartment nearly five years ago.
The business’newly constructed bricks-and-mortar location is decorated with floral wallpaper andgleaming tiles of white and sunset-pink. One set of windows offers views of fishing boats and the distant hills. Another looks onto the pool used for scuba classes offered by aneighbor,Ventura Dive & Sport.
It’s a major chance of scenery for Elson, whogrew up in a suburb of Washington, D.C.The youngest daughter of two scientists, she relocated to the West Coast in 2002 to attend theUCLA School of Law. But after graduating three years later and landing her first job, she made a disturbing discovery:She didn’tlike being a lawyer.
She’d also started listening to the KCRW show “Good Food” and its host, Evan Kleiman, whom she credits with helping fill in the blanks of her culinary education.
“Growing up, food was of secondary importance. We ate to live. Things came out of a can. Moving to California and discovering that food grows on trees felt like discovering that money grows on trees.I became a foodie,” Elson said.
When a check for overpayment of law-school tuition showed up in her mailbox unexpectedly, Elsontook theleap. She spent it on baking classes at Chef Eric’s Culinary Connection in Los Angeles, where a 20-week, Sundays-only session allowed her to keep working onweekdays.
“I just loved it. I felt so productive. We took ingredients and turned them into something at the end of every day,” she said.
Elson’s skills continued to improve as sheinterned with Beth Kellerhals, then the pastry chef for suchRoy Choi projects as A-Frame and Sunny Spot.“My friends kept saying, ’You should open your own bakery!’But lawyers are pretty risk-averse,” she said with a laugh.
Advised to get a master’s degree in business before changing careers, Elsonenrolled in the USC Marshall School of Business. Her habit of eating a single squareof chocolate after dinner inspired the class-project idea that ultimately led to Top This Chocolate.
“I got bored,” she said of the store-bought treat, which was available in just a few flavors. “I knew how to temper chocolate, so I started experimenting with adding things to it. I wondered: ’Where can a person go to get freedom of choice with chocolate?’ “
She wrote a business plan, ran the financials and did some consumer research. Then she entered the idea in the school’s pitch competition for women that was started by the founder of a decorative pillow company. Shewon. (An oversized version of the$25,000 check Elson received as prize money hangs in her office at Top This Chocolate.)
The win gave Elson the financial backing tolaunchTop This Chocolate as an online business. But amention in Redbook magazine’s 2015 holiday gift guide nearly sank her.
“I had to hire and train seven people in two days to fill all the orders from my apartment,” she said, laughing again. “On the plus side, it showed me that people liked what I was doing, provided they knew it existed.”
A real-world retail space with good foot traffic proved elusive –and expensive. “Property values in Los Angeles were high, and rising. I just kept looking further and further out. Then I saw the listing for this place,” she said.
Withweeksof business already under her belt, Elson feels she made the right move.
“Ventura is under-chocolated –this neighborhood, in particular. We’ve been met by an amazingly positive response,” she said.
A bag ofsix pre-decorated squares is $7; pre-decorated bars are $9. Build-your-own chocolates are $8 for bars, $15 for 12 squares and $26 for 24 squares, plus 50 cents per topping choice. Adding a name in white or dark chocolate letters is $5.50. A cup of chocolate is $5, plus 50 cents per topping choice.
Top This Chocolate is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily (1559 Spinnaker Drive, Suite 109, 805-535-4167, https://topthischocolate.com).
Elsewhere in Ventura,Peirano’s Market & Delicatessen will open to the public at 10 a.m. Oct. 15, capping a series of by-invitation training sessions.The market and order-at-the-corner deli specializing in sandwiches, salads and open-faced crostini is the newest business to occupy the landmark Peirano’s Grocery building, erected in 1877.
Its owners are Jim Rice and Linda Jordan, with Johnny Occhipintias general manager. Occhipintico-owns a Carpinteria blueberry farm and will serve asliaison with area farmerswhose produce is sold in the market and featured in dishes by executive chef Ashley Walsh(204 E. Main St., 805-552-5123,https://www.deliventura.com).
For more about Peirano’s, see the Cafe Societycolumn in the Life section of the Oct. 13 edition of The Star, or click on https://bit.ly/2nDTa9o.
MORE:Peirano’s Market to bring new life, sandwiches to historic Ventura address
Meanwhile, the Denny’s under construction at the former Coco’s Bakery & Restaurantat 4095 E. Telegraph Road has a new anticipated opening date: Oct. 22. Itsgrand opening will be celebratedin December, according to a spokesperson (https://www.dennys.com).
In OJAI: The restaurant’s sign is still waiting for city approval, but Live to Eat opened for business last month, serving ramen, bao buns, boba and Korean-style shaved icecalled bingsuat the address vacated this spring by Asian Fusion Garden.
Live to Eat is the newest concept from Suvanna “Sue” Subanakyos, who with family members operatesPrawn & Basil in Thousand Oaks, Coconut Crab in Simi Valley and Exotic Thailocations from Woodland Hills to Ojai –the latter located foundacross the street.
Indecorative flourishes similar to the Tsuki Ramenthe family opened in Westlake Village in April, rows of Asian soupspoons are hung on the wall just behind the host station, while the backdining room includes a mural of a bowl of noodles, some arranged to spell out “Sue.” The space is lightand bright, thanks to the removal of stained glass windows that remained in place as Asian Fusion Garden took the place of AJChinese (now in Ojai Valley’s Mira Monte neighborhood), which in turn replaced Golden Moon.
Ramen selections range from the classic, pork-basedtonkotsu ($12) to spicy lobster ($28).Wok-prepared dishes include garlic butter noodles ($10), kimchi fried rice ($16) and Sichuan boiled fish ($20). Bingsu preparations include the Strawberry Pocky, made with milk shaved ice andgarnished with sliced strawberries andPocky sticks. It comes with a small pitcher of strawberry cream on the side.
The restaurant has a separate bar area and a license to sell beer, wine and spirits.
Its hours are from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays, noon to 10 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 9 p.m. Sundays (842 E. OjaiAve., 805-640-0201).
In OXNARD, the retirement of chef and owner Tony Lin spells the end of China Squareafter just over 30years of business. The restaurant spent its first two-plus decades at the old Carriage Square center at Oxnard and Gonzalesroads before moving to Centennial Plaza in the fall of 2009. It will close after service on Oct. 19 (450 South B St., 805-487-9988).
The THOUSAND OAKSlocation of Rocket Fizzwill closeOct. 23, according to a hand-made banner hanging next to the front door. The shop specializing in vintage candies and novelty sodas and gifts opened nearly nine years ago inthe Center Oaks Plaza(593 N. Moorpark Road, Suite D, 805-494-7632,https://rocketfizz.com). The chain’s flagship location in Camarillo closed in January, about a year afterchanging hands.
But one of Thousand Oaks’half-dozen Subwaysandwich shops is already no more. Open since 2015 or thereabouts, the chain’s location in the Janss Marketplace food court, 245N. Moorpark Road, closed in late August or early September, but not before posting a farewell sign that directs would-be patrons to the nearest Subway “only 300 meters away” at 440 N. Moorpark Road (https://www.subway.com/en-us).
Lisa McKinnon is a staff writer for The Star. To contact her, send email to lisa.mckinnon@vcstar.com.
