Chicago celebrates the hearty Midwestern appetite for meat and potatoes with lots of steakhouses and rib joints, but it's a little-known fact that the Windy City was once noted for its sweet tooth, as the "Candy Capital of the World." Back in 1884, when the National Confectionery Association was founded in Chicago, there were 69 candy factories in the city, including companies that introduced Snickers, Butterfingers, Baby Ruth, M&Ms and Tootsie Rolls.
There's still a good amount of candy making happening in Chicago, with a big portion devoted to chocolate. Check out these spots to satisfy your chocolate cravings:
Leonidas Chocolate Cafe
This small shop near the Mag Mile is often overlooked for flashier establishments, but it would be a mistake to pass up this Belgian chocolate emporium. Leonidas serves up high-quality chocolate in a variety of ways, including ice cream and pastries. Sample devilishly rich drinking chocolate in 10 different flavors or opt for chocolate truffles in intriguing flavors like the chocolate liquor assortment or the 70 percent cacao bar.
Vosges Haut Chocolat Boutique
"Experiential chocolate" never tasted so good. With exotic flavors and ingredients like coconut ash and banana super dark chocolate bar or smoke & stout caramel filled bar, Vosges is the ultimate gourmet chocolate experience. Browse through the boutique on Michigan Avenue and put together a "chocolate library" of mini chocolate bars or snag a box of decadent truffles.
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Margie's Candies
Open since 1921, Margie's Candies is a Chicago institution. Boasting hand-dipped chocolates and the richest hot fudge sundaes in the city, this Bucktown shop is a must for chocolate fiends and history buffs alike.
The ice cream is homemade as well and if you can get passed the case filled with chocolates, sink into a booth and order the classic World Largest Terrapin (15 scoops of french vanilla, fresh fudge, caramel, whipped cream, nuts, bananas and a cookie.)
Mindy's Hot Chocolate
This restaurant and dessert bar always appears on Chicago chocolate or dessert lists because legendary top chef Mindy Segal holds chocolate in a special place and serves it in a myriad of ways. You can sink into a milk chocolate coffee mousse or an icebox brownie covered in hot fudge, but as the name suggests, Hot Chocolate delivers the drink in high style. Try chai flavored chocolate of half & half, half espresso, half hot chocolate.
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