The Chocolate Roost
The Chocolate Roost
Something sweet is in the air in Portville, NY
PORTVILLE - Wafts of maple syrup from Sprague’s and delicious loose hamburger scents from Red’s and Trudy’s will now be joined with the aroma of chocolates at Portville neighbor, The Chocolate Roost, an addition to Rusty Roosters Farm and Vintage.
Jean Smith, owner of the company with her husband Justin stated, “The Chocolate Roost is a 300 square foot addition to our store where specialty chocolates, truffles and nostalgic candies provide a tasty treat to our area!”
The chocolates and truffles are outsourced from chocolatiers in Vermont, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New York, New Jersey, and some Belgium chocolate imports. Justin added, “The roost currently has 50 varieties in the bulk case alongside several prepackaged favorites like sponge candy and sugar-free selections.”
The couple have such fond childhood memories of local five-and-dimes with assortments of penny candy they just had to include them in their product lines - jawbreakers, rock candy, Neccos, Charleston chews, bazooka, lemon heads, fireballs, candy necklaces - to list just a few. They also have a great selection of saltwater taffy, a dozen fudge flavors, and 9 varieties of jelly belly jellybeans.
The Chocolate Roost had a soft opening in early November with great success, and held their official ribbon cutting on Small Business Saturday. Local officials, company staff and community leaders as well as the public were in attendance to celebrate the special occasion.
Rusty Rooster opened its ‘barn’ doors in mid-2019. At the time, the store was vintage resale retail with architectural salvage with reclamation wood products as a service. The showroom grew from 1300 square feet to 4500 square feet which now includes the chocolate shop and the addition of other favorite specialty food items like Finger Lakes Coffees, Amish Popcorn and Gourmet Creations Dip Mixes.
So why chocolate? Mrs. Smith replied, “One of my favorite things to do when we travel is check out the small hometown shops and restaurants. I often found fantastic little confection shops and we just don’t have anything like this in our immediate area. I’ve long thought it would be a great addition to our shop.”
“The best part of the months leading up to opening was researching and taste testing,” added Mr. Smith, “finding those chocolatiers that have built excellent quality products like Birnn truffles of Vermont.”
The store does have options for corporate gifts, event favors and dessert set-ups. Working with other local businesses for the holiday markets is a future option they’d like to explore. The Chocolate Roost has prepackaged selections including gift packs of truffles, sponge candy, fudge and a few sugar-free options. Other selections are all available by the pound with 50 varieties in the display case to mix and match (you can buy one piece or hundreds).
Mrs. Smith’s favorites include sponge candy, dark truffles and coconut clusters, while Mr. Smith loves the thin mints. The shop is open daily through December from 10:00am-4:00pm Saturday/Sunday, and 10:00am-6:00pm Monday through Friday. For more information, please call 716-474-7402.