MAGNIFICENT MILE — Ghirardelli is ready to pour its heart chocolate out at the Wrigley Building downtown.
The San Leandro, Calif.-based chocolatier will open its long-awaited store at 10 a.m. Saturday in the landmark riverfront tower, 400-410 N. Michigan Ave.
Packaged Ghirardelli chocolate will be for sale on the ground floor of the 7,000-square-foot, two-level store, with a 98-seat dining room on top. There will also be a 24-seat patio outdoors.
The Ghirardelli patio at the Wrigley Building. [All photos by DNAinfo/David Matthews]
The dining room will offer views of the Chicago River and serve shakes, floats, hot chocolate and ice cream sundaes, among other items. The Wrigley Building store will also be among Ghirardelli's first to use a "chocolate tap" for dipping strawberries and making milk chocolate slabs. Ghirardelli's sundaes, most of which are priced at $9.95, will be served separately by a chocolate fountain that was not yet installed Friday.
This chocolate tap is ready.
The Wrigley Building store also is just the second Ghirardelli shop to sell chocolate-covered fruits and nuts.
Kym Hough, Ghirardelli's director of marketing, said the 163-year-old company sought space in the Wrigley Building because it likes storefronts in historic properties that match the chocolatier's heritage. An existing, smaller Ghirardelli store at 830 N. Michigan Ave. will remain open because Ghirardelli likes "being on both ends of Michigan Avenue," Hough said.
The store will be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Saturday's opening will precede Ghirardelli's "Grand Opening" on July 22.
Check out more pictures of the store before it opens.
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