Mmmmm More locations for Chocolate in Charleston.

From the Charleston Gazette
May 23, 2006
Holl's to open South Hills store



West Virginia-based chocolate seller Holl’s Chocolate opening a store in South Hills.

The company is moving into 1007 Bridge Road, former home of the Alex Franklin art store, said Holl’s President Dominique Holl.

The store is set to open in August or September and will occupy 1,750 square feet of the Alex Franklin space, which has been vacant since February.

“We really want to make this a showplace for our product,” Holl said.

Holl’s imports raw chocolate from Switzerland and refines it at its Vienna headquarters. It now has two stores, one in Vienna and one in Charleston’s Capitol Market.

The South Hills store will carry bigger gift packs and a broader range of chocolates than the Capitol Market store, as well as wines that go with chocolates and whole-bean coffee from the Columbus, Ohio-based small-batch roaster Stauf’s Coffee Roasters. The Capitol Market store carries neither wine nor coffee.

Unlike the Vienna shop, the South Hills location will sell tea and raw chocolate, Holl said.

Holl’s decided to expand in Charleston because the Capitol Market store has done well, Holl said. “We wanted to do this because we’ve been so well received by Charleston,” he said.

The South Hills spot was chosen in part because so many of Holl’s mail-order customers live there, Holl said.

Another tenant is close to signing a lease on the rest of the former Alex Franklin space, a 2,000-square-foot section, said Rick Rubin, who manages the property for owner South Hills Properties. Rubin said he couldn’t disclose the business’ name.