Ethel's Chocolate Lounge - or why the Mars Bros. are rich

Snickers, Milky Way, Mars bars. Lovely confections, all. But are they fine chocolates? Not at all - passable chocolate is just a component of the overall confection, and not even the dominant flavor in most. Still, those flavors, that taste, that confectionary concept, has made the Mars Company very large, very successful, and the Mars Brothers extremely rich.

Ethel's Chocolate Lounge is a new concept from Mars - a chain of fine chocolate shops with seating and cafe-type service, offering beverages, including hot chocolate (dark, milk, or blended) as well as chocolate fondue and tasting platters of their chocolates. For $15 one gets two hot chocolates, and a platter of 10 chocolates of your choice, as well as a sprinkling of white, dark and milk chocolate chips. It is enough chocolate. The room is fun, a sort of pink Eloise fantasy, and the web site gives you a good feel for the style if the place, if, strangely, no on line menu: http://www.ethelschocolate.com/

They have 10 locations, all around Chicago, so there is probably one near you, and I imagine the plan is to roll it out nationally once they prove/improve the concept.

So the Bride and I had to go. I was excited. While I am neither a chocolate gourmet, nor a fanatic, I enjoy the rich complexity of fine chocolate, the mouth feel, the entire sensual experience. A few years ago in Treviso I ordered a hot chocolate for some reason; I suppose I wanted something warm and had already had enough expresso, and out came a molten cup of chocolate with some cream on the side to mix in as one wanted. Sinful, overwhelming and totally memorable. Three members of my family attacked it together and were unable to finish this 8 ounce confection, but it was wonderful.

I was hoping to relive that memory at Ethel's. If I had understood that it was a Mars operation before I arrived, perhaps I could have recalibrated my expectations to a Snickers rather than a Caillebaut experience.

In short, the chocolate was disappointing, almost across the board. To my palate, all the flavored chocolates were unbalanced, with the flavors dominating the chocolate. A great chocolate should be dominated by the flavor of the chocolate, with the flavoring providing a counterpoint which accents the chocolate, or at worst is coequal with the chocolate. Not so with Ethel's - flavorings were added with a hamfisted force that would have done Paul Prudhomme proud - Earl Grey Truffles tasted of fine quality bergamot, with a taste of chocolate somewhere in the back if one took the time to discern it. An Etheltini chocolate was fun, clearly a Martini in flavor; a Key Lime chocolate was beautifully painted and chock full of a creamy, coconutty and slightly limey filling, and surrounded with some chocolate, I believe.

The hot chocolate was loaded with whipped cream and sugar, and clearly had some chocolate in it. But, most telling, the Bride had the milk chocolate, and I had the dark chocolate, and it was really difficult to tell the difference.

To be fair, a dark chocolate truffle was pretty tasty, and bursting with chocolate. And we took home a bag of chocolate toffees that are very good, if pricey at close to $40 a pound. But even the chocolate chips seemed more emulsifier and less cocoa butter than they should have been.

Ethel's seems to come from the same parentage as Mars' fine chocolate enterprise, Ethel M's which has been posted on here: http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=22017#22017.

Perhaps if my expectations had been different, or the prices a bit more reasonable, I would have enjoyed the experience more. But I was expecting a temple of chocolate, where I was going to enjoy a mini-chocolate bacchanalia, and instead I got something more akin to a vist to Hershey, Pa., which is fine in its place.

Are they right - does America love chocolate so long as it is not too chocolatey? Given Mars success at targeting America's sweet tooth, it would not surprise me. But I have no need to go back. There are much better chocolate stores, that also are less expensive, around here, and I can buy good chocolate and cocoa to make wonderful hot chocolate at home, reproducing that Treviso experience when the mood hits me.

dicksond wrote:Are they right - does America love chocolate so long as it is not too chocolatey?

Sadly, yes.

Obviously there are boutique brands that break the mold, and these are clearly what Ethel's is trying to imitate. But they're taking places like Vosges and adjusting them for the preferences of the average american consumer.

I would suspect they're looking to book things like bridal showers, baby showers, etc. They want to please your event planner, not your palate.

gleam wrote:I would suspect they're looking to book things like bridal showers, baby showers, etc. They want to please your event planner, not your palate.

Absolutely true. Lots of party packages.

It seems I could get what I wanted that night in the city with little problem, per the Angel Food/hot chocolate thread nearby. Perhaps I will do a survey of chocolatiers in the far west suburbs to see what I can find.

I haven't tried the new chocolate lounges but there's a bunch of Ethel M stores in Nevada, including the Reno airport. I agree that the flavored chocolates and truffles leave something to be desired. The old adage really rings true for Ethel's chocolates-less is more. What I think they do really well is just dark chocolate with macadamia nuts or almonds. The dark chocolate has a wonderful richness, and smooth mouth feel. It has the taste of a high quality european chocolate. As soon as they try to get complicated with their chocolate, it begins to taste more and more like fannie may. If you're a chocolate purist, go back and give it a try. I don't believe you'll be disappointed.

I pass the Ethel's Chocolate stand every weekday rushing for my train in Northwestern (Ogilvie) station. Occassionally they are passing out samples and I have grabbed one more than once. To my palate these things are tasteless, almost like eating cocoa-scented wax.

Although I would not consider myself a chocolate connoisseur .. I do always carry a 70% cocoa Lindt bar to work. I eat about 2 squares (sometimes more) every day. I have eaten a variety of dark chocolates in my day and can discriminate which ones I like more or less. I do like them all albeit to varying degees.
Ethel's has managed to change my perspective.

RevrendAndy wrote:As soon as they try to get complicated with their chocolate, it begins to taste more and more like fannie may.

Why insult Fannie May?

For what it's worth, Ethel's is giving away 10,000 boxes of chocolate on May 17th at all ten area locations. They are celebrating both their two-year Chicago anniversary and their recent "City's Best Chocolate" award from AOL Cityguide (Vosges did not even make the list.)

Ethel's is to chocolate connoisseurs as Michelob is to people who think they drink good beer.


I hate to sound like a snob...but who am I kidding? I'm posting this comment on a Foodie message board.

Mellonhead beat me to the punch! I'm going to "snob out" here and say that Ethel's sucks. I can't think of a nicer way to say it. But, give the Mars folks credit: they know their market. So much so that they planted their stores in, among other places, the main lobbies of the 900 Michigan building and Northbridge, enticing the brides-to-be and the mums in town visiting their college-aged children.

I wish I had Mars stock...

Vosges, on the other hand, is the cat's meow! Bonus: the one at Northbridge is never busy considering that tourists rarely make it up to their second-floor shop.

PS - I'd gladly pay for a pound of Fannie Mae Pixies before eating a box of free Ethel's. Does that make me snobby or low-brow?

Talk about snobbery! It's not like Ethel's is bad - it's great chocolate. In fact, it's hard to find "bad chocolate" - the only thing that comes to mind for me are the bargain bin easter bunnies.

So to say it "sucks" is ridiculous. Are there better chocolates? Sure. But would you turn it down, because it "sucks"? Give me a break. It's chocolate, the best food on the planet! Quit finding a reason to nitpick, and just enjoy something that tastes good!

jonjonjon wrote:In fact, it's hard to find "bad chocolate"

I disagree - There's a lot of "bad chocolate" out there - mostly mass produced supermarket stuff that's too waxy and light on chocolate flavor. Blech.

It's very easy to find bad chocolate. Very, very easy.

Chocolate is very much like wine. Some people like any wine and some people draw the line at Yellowtail.

I think Ethel's is closer to Yellowtail than, say, Franzia. But it's no Latour.

If I'm eating chocolate to eat chocolate (rather than as part of, say, a reeses peanut butter cup), Ethel's won't cut it. Might as well eat a Hershey's bar.

Sorry jonjonjon - didn't mean to offend you.

Ethel's really IS bad - especially based on the price per piece. It's easy to say that it sucks based on my experience after trying 8 different truffles at 2 Ethel's locations on 2 different occassions. If you're going to throw down $2.50 per piece I think you can expect a better product than what they're peddling. Mars should stick to what they do best as they clearly don't do specialty chocolate very well at all.

BTW - I really DO enjoy chocolate. Too often, unfortunately. Halloween is my "danger" time; forget the Lindt and the Vosges and hand over that bag of Snickers minis! OMG, did someone say free KitKat's?? I'm there!

There's an Ethel's in the Two N. Riverside Plaza building (in the pedway) and I walk past it several times a week; I've never seen a customer buying something there.

lfw1031 wrote:Sorry jonjonjon - didn't mean to offend you.

oh, not offended - I just think that almost all chocolate is good, it's just that some is ridiculously good. So I guess a "sucks" needs to be put in context. It's not "spit it out" bad - it just isn't worth the $3/piece. I see what you're saying.

But, like so many discussions on this site - it's arguing semantics. So I'll not even bother

For what it's worth, I've had Ethel's only once - it was hot chocolate - and I loved it. But, I'm not a connesiour - my favorite chocolate is Reese's Fast Break bar!

I like Vosges chocolate and I like Ethel's chocolate. I can still browse the forum though, right?

Bill wrote:There's an Ethel's in the Two N. Riverside Plaza building (in the pedway) and I walk past it several times a week; I've never seen a customer buying something there.

I work near there and have never seen anyone buying in their either. The Long Grove Confectionary seems to do fair business in the same general area.