![]() ![]() ![]() He was aghast to learn that chocolatiers only use 30 percent of the whole "superfood," and trash the rest. Brenner had discovered the myriad uses of cacao - a football-shaped fruit with white, somewhat ghostly-looking "pods" inside - on a trip to a Blue Mountain Coffee plantation in Jamaica. In 2018, the Blue Stripes: Urban Cacao shop opened just a block and a half from the Max Brenner flagship in Union Square. But when the exile was over, he returned with a new venture. And he was banned from creating anything chocolate-related or putting his name or face on any brand for five years ( Entrepreneur reached out to Strauss for comment but didn't receive a response prior to publication).īrenner says those five years were the darkest of his life he moved his family, struggled financially, called up friends to ask for help finding work. Brenner fought down to his last penny, but still lost both Little Brown and his place at Max Brenner. But when the new concept started to find success, Strauss sued him for violating his non-compete. With Strauss's blessing, he opened a separate cafe chain, Little Brown Chocolate Bakery & Coffee, in 2011. And while the brand continued to grow, moving its headquarters to New York and opening 50-plus international locations, Brenner began to feel the loss of control more acutely. In 2001, the company was acquired by Israeli food conglomerate Strauss Group. Word of the chocolate amusement spread, and Max Brenner (a hat-tip to Brenner and his original partner, Max Fichtman) quickly became a household name in Israel. I really turned it into a chocolate amusement park." You say, "I'm addicted to chocolate, I want a chocolate fix.' So I created a big syringe full of chocolate so you can shoot it into your mouth. Let's create a "hug mug,' so you can hug your mug close and feel like you are in a chalet on a ski vacation. I said: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Let's create chocolate pipes that go all around the restaurant. So this was the beginning of Max Brenner. Traditional chocolate stores treat chocolate almost like jewelry, in these beautiful boxes - don't touch it! But when I talked to my customers, they were talking about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, sexy gifts, romantic childhood memories, the emotional connotations of chocolate. "I felt there was a big gap between the way people talk and think about chocolate and the way they experience it in the retail world. "The things I was doing in my shop were very out of the box, different from classic European chocolate stores," he says. So he went to Paris to study under the chocolatier Michel Chaudun, and in 1996, when he was 25, he returned to Israel to open a chocolate shop in the small town of Ra'anana. But he needed money to finance his writing, and it turned out he had a knack for making pastries. Growing up in Israel, Brenner wanted to be a writer. He quoted John Lennon: "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." He probably didn't plan to be bald, either, but when we spoke on the phone, the 52-year-old founder of Max Brenner: Chocolate by the Bald Man suggested that plans are often a detour from the main event. It is a get in and get out kind of shop, while Modern Pastry has a few tables where you can sit and sip a freshly brewed cappuccino as you indulge on your hand crafted pastry.As an ambitious young man looking to leave his mark on the world, Oded Brenner never planned to make chocolate. The difference between Mike’s Pastry and Modern Pastry is the seating/ restaurant portion of Modern Pastry. Their lobster tail pastry is to die for, and their cannolis are out of this world! Some will argue as to which bakery is the superior out of the two, but Modern Pastry is my personal favorite. Right across the street from Mike’s Pastry lies Modern Pastry, another family owned Italian pastry and dessert shop. There are endless amounts of pastries ranging from macaroons to ricotta pie! They even sell a kit to make your own cannolis, so you too can join in on the pastry making fun! Processed with VSCO with hb1 preset 3. As a tourist, seeing everyone carry around those famous white boxes with blue string will have you wanting in on the trend. This Italian bakery is a staple of the North End, and a beloved bakery to many. Mike’s Pastry, or the “home of the cannoli,” is a family owned business that was founded in 1946 by Michael Mercogliano (hence the name Mike’s Pastry). ![]()
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