Pralines and Crunches: Cocoa Dolce

Prairie Fire opened this weekend in Overland Park and our weekend lives will never be the same. Prairie Fire is now THE place to get coffee and chocolate, eat sushi, go bowling, buy innovative toys, catch a movie, and explore the life of the dinosaurs. A very happy Mother's Day weekend, indeed!

As someone who loves chocolate, I was especially excited by the prospect of the opening of Cocoa Dolce Artisan Chocolates. I spent months waiting for the store to open. I just knew it had to be all kinds of wonderful. When the store finally opened this weekend, it was everything I was hoping for and then some. Cocoa Dolce comes to Overland Park from Wichita, where the first Cocoa Dolce store was opened in 2005. The founder, Ms. Beth Tully, who I had the pleasure to meet as she was working with her team on putting the store together, brought into the Overland Park store her many years of experience with all things sweet and with running a successful business.

But I think what really makes the store so special is Ms. Tully's passion for what she does. Before opening her first store, Ms. Tully had a successful career in sales at a Fortune 500 company, which couldn't keep her from her true passion, chocolate. As the store's website quotes, Ms. Tully said: "When I turned 50, I had this epiphany that I really needed to be doing something I felt passionate about. I realized that I wasn't living what I'd call an 'honest' life. I was just punching the clock and moving through life instead of really living it." These words and this experience resonated with me. I think a lot of us at different times in our personal history are living the life we happened into or that others expect from us and if we wake up to what is happening and have the ability to change what is to what we were meant to do and be, our lives become completely transformed. We do go to really living.

Back to sugar, one of the hallmarks of the sweet life. You can find it at Cocoa Dolce in many delicious forms -- artisanal chocolates (to eat and to gift), gelato, French macarons, and specialty drinks. The store is beautifully done and is very cozy. There is free internet, comfortable armchairs, and the smell of cocoa in the air, all inviting you to spend a delicious couple of hours here anytime you want to. There is also outdoor sitting. You can come here in the morning to grab coffee before work (they open at 7:30 am on Monday-Friday) and you can come here for an after-dinner treat (they close at 9:30 pm on Monday-Thursday and 10:30 pm on Friday and Saturday). Speaking of after-dinner treats, Cocoa Dolce offers the unique chocolate lounge experience, by offering craft beer and boutique wine pairings with chocolate. Cocoa Dolce also does special events, including chocolate-making classes, which I am really looking forward to.