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| One (seven), please! |
Papa Bear's Chocolate Haus
45150 Main Street
Mendocino, CA
I arrived twenty minutes before business hours. Argh!
Like a bad Mervyn's commercial actor, I paced and waited for the doors to open. My mission? Raspberry Bark. It was all I could think about. Through the front window, I could see a single gentleman inside, carefully spreading white chocolate to a precise thickness on a huge marble (?) counter. Nineteen more minutes. Next, he uniformly sprinkled fresh raspberries atop the chocolate. Eighteen more minutes. I had to get out of there before I started salivating all over myself.
I found a kitchen store - the perfect place to kill seventeen minutes.
Finally, the doors opened. What the hell? I guess I spent more time browsing for aprons and cheese graters than I had thought, because I was tenth in line; no worries though, because the candy maker was just about to divide the slab into manageable slices.
One, please!
I was hooked after the first bite. Where in the world did they find these raspberries? Clearly, someone had sold his soul to the devil. One after the other, they burst inside my mouth. They were juicy, amazingly tart, and perfectly complemented the smooth, white chocolate. I almost forgot I had also purchased haystacks, fudge and chocolate nut clusters.
Almost.
