Celebrating with chocolate

After Michigan and a girls’ dinner celebrating two birthdays, all of which will be documented here, but before the McHusband’s most recent skydiving this weekend, there was a visit to the Videri Chocolate Factory right here in downtown Raleigh.

Heather’s birthday was Saturday and even though we girls had already officially celebrated it the previous Wednesday, I wanted to do something ON her actual birthday, especially since I knew Bruce unfortunately had to work all day.  Heather knew we were going to lunch then doing something afterward, but she didn’t know about the chocolate factory until we were halfway downtown and she was captive in my passenger seat.  Luckily, she seemed excited at the idea of our dessert plans.

We met Kim at Brewmasters Grill and Bar, somewhere none of us had been before.  It was fairly empty for lunch, but that had nothing to do with the food, which was very good.  Heather had the Turkey Club, I had a black bean burger, and Kim had a regular burger and we’d all three happily get the same meal again.

From lunch, we walked to Videri.  As we went through this pedestrian alley, Kim looked around and said, “I think Greg and I took some engagement pictures here.”  Heather helped jog her memory with a stereotypical lovey-dovey pose…

You’d hardly know the factory was there if you weren’t looking for it.  I mean, it’s right across from The Pit’s patio, on which I had dinner not long ago, and I had no idea Videri was rightthere.  Lucky for Kim and Heather, I was with them and you all know how good I am with directions and finding my way around unfamiliar places.  Hah!

This “tour” wasn’t like the one we did in Boston with Rick and Sabrina where we truly got to go behind the scenes to see how this whole bean-to-bar thing worked.  But we still got a glimpse of how they do things.

We saw a huge roaster.

And someone was actually working.

We saw a vat of chocolate, which made Heather and I want to do the Encino Man thing and stick our heads under the chocolate pouring out of the faucet.  Our version of “wheezing the juice.”

You know you’re tempted.  I mean, that chocolate’s just BEGGING to be tasted.

So that’s pretty much the tour in a nutshell.  That’s okay, it let us get to the REAL reason we were there: the free samples!

They had four for us to try, and I took a picture of the one none of us liked only because it was the only one that actually looked a little different.

Look at all those chocolate bars.

The Sea Salt Chocolate was my favorite so of course I had to buy a bar to take home.

Would I say the Videri Chocolate Factory needs to be a destination location for you?  Not right now.  But if you’re already in the fairly immediate area, it’d be worth stopping in and spending a few minutes walking through IF you like chocolate, especially darker, stronger chocolates.

Hope you had a great birthday afternoon, Heather!  I’m glad we three got to spend it together.