Travis American
It was dark and freezing, and a few minutes past closing, but Constantine and Ruby Kalpaxis weren’t fazed—someone was here to learn about how they make chocolate.
And teach they did: Constantine shuffled around their no-frills shop, Ridgewood Chocolate, for more than an hour, guiding me through each step of the meticulous two-day process. Ruby stood by the register, wrapping and double-wrapping pucks of chocolate in green-and-white paper, jumping in at the exciting parts. Constantine sprinkled in fun facts about cocoa beans, and the corporate chocolate industry, and the dangers of fructose corn syrup. His blue-gray eyes sparkled all the while.
They spoke with such authority, such excitement, as if their shop, at 6002 Catalpa Ave., had been in business for decades. In reality they committed to making 70 percent dark chocolate just a few years ago, in 2016.
