L.A. Burdick is a chocolatier established in the 1970s. It has six locations in the United States: two in

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, and one each in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and Walpole, NH.

History

In the late 1970s, Larry Burdick trained as a

chocolatier A chocolatier ( ; ; ) is a person or company that makes and sells chocolate confections. Chocolatiers are distinct from chocolate makers, who create chocolate from cacao beans and other raw ingredients. Chocolatiers work artisanally with pre- ...

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

, Switzerland. Upon completing his training, he returned to the United States and began offering a variety of luxury products, such as

truffles A truffle is the fruiting body of a subterranean ascomycete fungus, one of the species of the genus ''Tuber''. More than one hundred other genera of fungi are classified as truffles including '' Geopora'', '' Peziza'', '' Choiromyces'', and ' ...

bonbon A bonbon, sometimes bon-bon, is a small chocolate confection. They are sometimes filled with liqueur or other sweet alcoholic drinks and sold wrapped in colored foil. Ingredients Through the Western world, bonbons are usually small candies but v ...

s, his signature chocolate mice, and an assortment of

hot chocolate Hot Chocolate are a British soul band formed by Errol Brown and Tony Wilson. The group had at least one hit song every year on the UK Singles Chart from 1970 to 1984. Their hits include " You Sexy Thing", a UK number two which also made ...

powders specifically to high end restaurants. He wanted to create chocolate confections that showed the quality of chocolate. He knew that the majority of chocolate in the United States was mass-produced, using low-quality cocoa and high amounts of

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

for flavor. This realization motivated him to bring about a change in the chocolate industry in the United States. The first L.A. Burdick shop opened its doors in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

in 1987. Five years later, Burdick and his family moved the business to

Walpole, New Hampshire Walpole is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 3,633 at the 2020 census. The town's central village, where 573 people resided at the 2020 census, is defined as the Walpole census-designated place (CDP) a ...

. From there, they continued to expand their reach, opening additional locations in Massachusetts and other parts of the United States.

Head chocolatier

For the past 19 years, Michael Klug has held the position of head chocolatier at L.A. Burdick.{{Cite news , last=Fabricant , first=Florence , date=2021-03-09 , title=An Ode to Irish Classics, in Chocolate , language=en-US , work=The New York Times , url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/08/dining/la-burdick-st-patricks-day-chocolate.html , access-date=2023-04-13 , issn=0362-4331 Originally from

Montabaur Montabaur () is a town and the district seat of the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. At the same time, it is also the administrative centre of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Montabaur – a kind of collective municipality – to wh ...

in Germany, Klug has had a 35-year career, working at some well known restaurants in the United States and Germany, including one with a

Michelin star The ''Michelin Guides'' ( ; ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The ''Guide'' awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few restaurants in certain geographic ...

Chocolate and delicacies

L.A. Burdick's chocolate is sourced from Switzerland, France, and Venezuela, using cocoa beans from South and Central America as well as the Caribbean. They avoid using extracts or artificial flavorings. They offer a variety of hot chocolates including dark, milk, and

white chocolate White chocolate is a chocolate made from cocoa butter, sugar and milk solids. It is Ivory (color), ivory in color and lacks the dark appearance of most other types of chocolate as it does not contain the non-fat components of cocoa (cocoa sol ...

. They also have a changing monthly menu with selections from different countries.

Locations and design

L.A. Burdick has seven locations. Each shop has the same overall theme which was designed with the help of Paula Burdick, Larry Burdick's wife, who attended the

Fashion Institute of Technology The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is a public college under the State University of New York, in New York City. It focuses on art, business, design, mass communication, and technology connected to the fashion industry. It was founded in ...

and assisted in the design of shops in Paris. The locations are Parisian-style and make use of brown tones to complement wood elements. The first location in New York City was opened in 1987, and the second location in New Hampshire in 1997. The third location was in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, Massachusetts. The fourth location opened its doors in Boston on

Newbury Street Newbury Street is located in the Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts, Back Bay area of Boston, Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. It runs roughly east–west, from the Public Garden (Boston, Massachusetts), Boston Public ...

in 2012. The fifth location opened in 2017 and the 6th in Washington D.C. in 2020. The most recent location opened in

Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline () is an affluent town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area. An exclave of Norfolk County, Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Boston, Brighton ...

in 2024.

References

Chocolatiers