Coco Rouge
Brutzkus and his partner, Erika Panther, may still be adapting to the quirks of their three-month-old retail space on Division near Damen. But after culinary school and almost seven years selling artisanal candies out of a friend’s catering kitchen, they’re experts on chocolate.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The two met and coupled up as students at Le Cordon Bleu in London. They both graduated with honors in 1999 and moved together to Chicago, Brutzkus’s hometown. When they launched Coco Rouge in 2000, they offered via wholesale and mail order a selection of truffles and chocolates from original recipes that twist classic methods and pairings with unexpected ingredients such as saffron, quince, and bacon fat.
Be it bacon, pepper, or vanilla beans, Brutzkus and Panther are persnickety about the quality of their ingredients–they use about 20 to 30 different types of chocolate made from only the the highest-quality cacao. The kitchen is surprisingly bare–just some jars and a few blocks of organic Sicilian marzipan on a marble tempering table were visible when I visited–because they prefer to keep everything fresh. The difference this makes is obvious upon biting into the Cassius, a bonbon with a liquid interior made of caramel, a rare vanilla, and 18-year-old single-malt Scotch. There was no harsh alcohol burn, no cloying aftertaste, just a nice warm glow.
