Dandelion Chocolate Unleashes New Cocoa-Laced Menu in the Mission

Photo: Molly DeCoudreaux

By Meesha Halm

We already told you about Dandelion Chocolate, the Good Food Award-winning small-batch beans-to-bar chocolate factory that opened for retail business in the Mission at the end of last year, but now comes the good stuff we’ve all been waiting for—a chocolate-riddled café menu. Patissier-in-residence Phil Ogiela has just unleashed a slate of daily pastries using Dandelion's current single origin chocolate. The list of opening items is chockfull of chocolate porn: fudge brownie with orange and cocao nibs and topped with whipped ganache and organic cocoa crispies, chocolate cake with Moroccan spices, two-layered caramel chocolate tart and crunchy hazelnut praline truffles to name just a few.

In addition, you’ll find cocoa-based drinks such as three types of hot drinking chocolate, smoothies made from the fruit of the cacao tree, Tisano cacao husk tea, and for addicts of the other kind of bean, Four Barrel coffee. The store's shelves are also full of plenty of chocolate-related merchandise for sale if you're looking to to get a jumpstart on your Valentine's Day shopping. 

And for all you DIY-ers out there who haven’t gotten a chance to personally watch the working factory roast, sort, ground, temper and hand mold its chocolate bars, check out this quirky video from Cat Trick Films that shows Dandelion’s bean-to-bar-and-back-again chocolate-making process. 

Dandelion Chocolate:  740 Valencia St, 415-349-0942, open 11 AM-6 PM, Wednesday-Sunday.