Chocolate. Chocolate everywhere—and it’s pouring out of Belmont Shore stops for humans and animals alike (and just in time for Valentine’s Day). Welcome to the 12th annual Chocolate Festival.
Organized by the Belmont Shore Business Association, the chocolate-filled festival took place this past Saturday. At this event, Belmont Shore businesses on 2nd street offered a variety of chocolate-related treats to the event’s attendees.
Dede Rossi, executive director of BSBA, said a couple thousand people showed up to last year’s event.
“We hold [the event] to basically bring people down to our street and promote Belmont Shore,” Rossi said.
Offering a safe alternative to chocolate, Pussy & Pooch, a 2nd Street business that caters to dogs, created a carob-based dog treat to give away during the festival.
“Pussy & Pooch is the only store that is participating in the Chocolate Festival that is giving doggy treats,” Ben Magana, a Pussy & Pooch employee, said. “We always participate in the local festivals.”
Twenty-four businesses participated this year; attendees had the opportunity to indulge in cookies, mini peanut butter chocolate cakes, chocolate tamales and many more.
Rather than choosing the typical dessert route, some businesses mixed chocolate with savory food. Urban Table Cafe, an American eatery and bar serving seasonal cuisine on 2nd street, offered tasters a dark bitter chocolate with vegetarian chili, and short ribs with chocolate sauce. Long Beach residents Rebecca Fisk and her son Ben were among the tasters in the event.
“I’ve been a long beach resident for a long time,” Fisk said. “We’ve moved away for five years and we just got back. It’s really fun to come back and go, ‘Oh yeah! They have all these lovely events on 2nd street,’ and it’s fun.”
Homemade dessert contests, chocolate pie eating contests and a raffle were among other things that took place at the festival.
Half of the money raised from the event is going back to the participating businesses, while the other half will go toward Belmont Shore marketing promotions, Rossi said.
All in all, Long Beach received its chocolate fix.