Take a Look Around Forthcoming Bon Bon Bon

Chocolate maker Alexandra Clark launched her brand Bon Bon Bon in a tiny 500-square-foot shop on Evaline Street in Hamtramck, and with all the booming success, she decided to expand to a 5,000-square-foot brick building on Joseph Campau.

Today, Eater gets a tour around the new manufacturing space. You can see from the photos that the space is still very raw. One of the walls has chalk on it denoting a library ladder. This will be posted in front of a display that will feature jars containing all of Bon Bon Bon's dry goods/ingredients that are use for making the chocolates (think: bee pollen, etc.).

Michelle and Chris Gerard

Clark says, "We are lucky to be working with both an engineer (my dad) and an architect (one of our favorite customers), as well as students from Horizon Academy in the design, demolition and construction of our new facility." She goes on:

Working with talented friends and family in our community has allowed us the mind power, concern, capital and enthusiasm necessary to both capture and restore the storied history of this building through repair, design and reuse of materials while also creating the very specialized type of kitchen that chocolate requires."

Our customers are always saying "if I can ever do anything to help, please let me know", and it's been a really humbling experience to see them all make good on that offer over, and over again. Here we're supposed to be the service provider, the chocolate maker, the jobs creator, the taxpayer and then next thing you know these same customers and neighbors are our bank, contractors, lawyer, designer and floor refinishers!

I always kind of wished that the world could work on great mutually beneficial relationships, I just didn't ever think that it actually did. Maybe it's because I'm jaded by the traditional chocolate industry value chain? Maybe we just have an especially dynamic community around us and we're lucky? Either way, this is slow progress but with the right people for the right reasons and we're all just so excited to be able to make this investment for all of the right reasons in the little town (Hamtramck) that took a chance in investing in us in all of the right ways right from the very beginning!

• All Bon Bon Bon Coverage [ED]
• A Visual Tour of Bon Bon Bon, Detroit's Favorite Chocolate Shop 1 [ED]