SEATTLE (AP) — A Seattle neighborhood known for its funkiness could someday be similarly renowned for its chocolate.
That's the aim of The Essential Baking Co., which plans to create a chocolate factory inside the former Redhook brewery in Fremont. In addition, the building will contain a cafe and a pastry-production facility.
Essential Baking plans to offer regular tours of the factory, hoping to attract people from around the country to see chocolate being made.
"Fremont already being a place known for uniqueness, I think the chocolate factory is likely to become a popular tourist destination," said Jeff Fairhall, one of Essential Baking's founders, who bought the landmark building with co-founder George DePasquale for $1.8 million in mid-May.
The facility will occupy a unique niche in the Northwest by making chocolate in small batches, starting from green cocoa beans.
Most companies in the industry — including Essential Baking currently — buy chocolate that has already been produced, then melt it down and use it to make their own chocolates and confections. Others in the industry said it's uncommon for a small company such as Essential Baking to be involved in both chocolate production and the creation of chocolate candies and confections.
"In the Northwest, and even in the United States, it's unusual," said Sean Seedlock, vice president of marketing with Fran's Chocolates in Seattle.
Essential Baking, known for its artisan breads, was founded in Fremont in 1994, a short distance from what was then the Redhook brewery. Essential Baking has since moved down the road to Wallingford, where the company has a bakery and cafe. The bread-baking operations and that cafe will remain there.
Chocolate was introduced to Essential Baking's product mix by William Leaman, the company's pastry chef, who had studied chocolate making before joining the company. The company sells chocolates and confections in its cafe, and it also sells chocolates to some stores at wholesale.
"It's a really nice connection to what Essential Baking Co. is already doing with artisan, handcrafted breads and pastries," said Todd Kluger, the company's chocolate maker. "Artisan, handcrafted chocolate is just a continuation of that."
The Fremont building will allow Essential Baking to increase its production capacity. The new facility will employ about 50 people, most of them in new positions, Fairhall said. Essential Baking's overall employment will go from about 115 people to more than 150.
By making its own chocolate, the company will have better control over flavor and quality, Kluger said. The company plans to use fair-trade and organic cocoa beans.
In addition to using its chocolate in its own candies and confections, the company will be able to sell in bulk to others.
The former Redhook building, an official city landmark, was constructed in 1905, originally serving as a trolley barn. Woodinville-based Redhook Ale Brewery moved from the building and closed its Trolleyman Pub, in the building's northwest corner, when its lease expired last year.
Essential Baking plans to begin renovating the building's interior this fall, with completion expected in summer 2004.