Strangers with Candy

Well, I'm waiting for my roommate to get home so we can watch the Glee NEW YORK finale together (he saw Trouty Mouth at Topshop when they were filming here.. ZOMG!!) so just thought I'd share a fun story about a spontaneous little experience I had on my way home from work.

I have always wanted to try out the Chocolate Library on St. Mark's Place and Avenue A, so I offered to pick up a gift for a client on my way home from work so that I could check it out.  The sign outside said there was a free chocolate tasting which, as I expected, just meant there were some pieces of chocolate by the register.  Whatevs.  I explained my purpose to the store owner and he helped me pick out a couple of nice chocolate arrangements for our client (and let me try the caramel and sea salt brownie chocolate truffles since my fat ass was "on the fence" about them).  Done.  As I'm paying, he asks me what kind of chocolate I would buy if I was shopping for myself.  I said I like coconut at which point he reaches under the counter (he's the Jamaican Willy Wonka) and hands me a bar of Indian coconut curry chocolate.  Umm.. yes please.  He asks if I'm in a hurry and when I say no, he brings me over to a table in the middle of the store and goes to the back, returning with a box of Belgian truffles.  2 other women walk in and he asks them to join.  He tells us to each pick a truffle and goes to the back office.  I pick a champagne truffle (delish) and one of the other women stupidly picked one that was just a remaining half.  "I wonder if someone already bit into this or cut it in half? Oh well!"  Mmm, yeah don't worry. No one in the East Village has hepatitis.  

Byron, our store owner friend, returns with 2 Woodchuck hard ciders and 4 wine glasses.  "Sorry, but we're going to have to go on a wine run later."  Later?  Is this a date?  I went on a date with a guy I met on the Long Island Railroad and, after suddenly mauling my face with his mouth in the middle of a dive bar in Sea Cliff, he tried to take me into a desolate park at 10:30 on a Sunday night so this sounds like the start of a date I would find myself on.  

No books on those shelves.. just chocolate. 

Anywho.. after singing the praises of my champagne Neuhaus Belgian truffle, I ask Byron which is his favorite of this glorious box.  He then says that last night after smoking some organic cigarettes, he polished off most of that box (yeah, sweetie, I don't think he used a sterile knife to cut that truffle in half while he was satisfying the munchies), and he seems to think that the cognac ones were his favorite but who knows!  He also created and sells an educational board game about wine (which, according to the Toy Industry (is that an official organization?)/Byron, is the only board game that offers a complete education on a single subject.  What a renaissance man!  He is blowing Chris from the LIRR out of the water right now.  

Alas, though, they're moving to a new location.  Just when I've made a friend with chocolate benefits in the neighborhood :(  After finishing my hard cider and playing Vitti Vino for a few rounds, I bid them adieu.  And now I will bid you all adieu as well because my roommate is home and he and I have to get our Glee on.  Later kids.