Century-old shop is still a chocolate paradise
Rick Shrum/Observer-Reporter
From left are Stephen Berg, David Berg, Anna Berg, Alisia Berg, Jonathan Berg and baby Liliana
Packages of Easter eggs, which will become more prominent soon, flank a framed newspaper article on previous owner Jake Paradise.
Rick Shrum/ Observer-Reporter
Rick Shrum/Observer-Reporter
The heart of the matter: Paradise Chocolates is celebrating its 100th anniversary year.
Rick Shrum/Observer-Reporter
Anna Berg with the two-foot-tall mold of a bunny that has kept her family business hopping at Eastertime.
Anna Berg is in paradise.
She, essentially, works at two full-time jobs. So does husband David, so do sons Stephen and Jonathan.
Labor day is sometimes all day for the Bergs, a circumstance that few would consider heavenly. Anna and David, however, are co-owners of Paradise Confectionery, a century-old Washington business where their offspring are employed as well. After they complete their “regular” workday, the four make milk chocolates in their shop along Donnan Avenue – where their toils, most assuredly, are the proverbial labor of love.
“We love what we do,” said Anna, a third-generation owner. “We love keeping it going because so many people enjoy it.”
Sales of Paradise’s 100% hand-dipped delicacies, she said, are largely driven by loyalty from a large customer base, and by “word of mouth.”
The business does not have a Facebook page, but Anna said a laudatory social media post recently sent business their way.
Word of mouth last fall led to Paradise’s first-place finish in the Candy Confectionery category in the Observer-Reporter’s annual Best of the Best competition.
The Bergs do direct sales at their shop via order forms available there. They don’t take online orders or market their items in other stores, but do ship their wares cross country. The business also has an informational website.
Paradise may be a noun patrons use to describe the shop’s handcrafted works, but in this instance, it is a legacy name.
Pete Paradise, a Greek immigrant and Anna’s great uncle, started the business on West Chestnut Street, where Crossroads Center now stands. It opened in 1920 – Anna does not have a specific date – and featured more than Pete’s crafted candies and a large storefront display window. The confectionery had a lunch counter and sizable soda fountain where sandwiches and ice cream also were served.
And there was a YMCA upstairs.
Anna’s father, Jake Paradise, took over the store in the early 1950s. He, too, was an immigrant from Greece, the oldest of 14 children. Jake ran the confectionery until 1973, when he closed operations there – but not his business. The nature of the family enterprise would change, though, into all chocolates all the time.
Jake, who also had two jobs, had built an addition to his family home on Donnan in the mid-1960s, where the clan made candy and transported it to the store on Chestnut. Following the closure, he moved the entire operation – manufacturing and sales, but no soda fountain or counter – to that addition, where the shop endures to this day.
“I grew up here. Dad would make candy here at night and I learned to pack boxes,” said Anna, whose son, Stephen, now resides in the house.
She and David assumed the reins of ownership in 1993, and strive to maintain tradition. Although she hasn’t a clue as to how Paradise chocolates tasted during the Hoover administration, Anna remembers the pleasant products her father crafted a half-century ago and strives, along with her family, to replicate the flavor.
“It’s similar to dad’s,” she said. “We always use milk chocolate and some white chocolate, but no dark chocolate. We want to keep it as good as it used to be, and try to improve it.”
Among the specialties are chocolate-covered cherries, chocolate creams and nuts, chocolate lollipops and chocolate-covered popcorn.
Despite being surrounded by sweet smells for so long, to the point that she, her spouse and sons no longer notice it, Anna still has a passion for the candy she grew up with.
“I ate a lot of it as a kid, but have a three-piece maximum now,” she said. “Some days I don’t have any, and some days I have three.”
The family’s shop isn’t spacious, but sufficient for what they do. It also serves as a mini-museum of history. There are two well-preserved cash registers from the original store, one so old that the highest price flag is $1. There are barrels and molds that go back to nearly the beginning – if not the beginning – of the business.
“They’re a little worn out, but if I were 100, I guess I’d be a little worn out,” Anna said, smiling.
An old mold of particular interest is that of a bunny, about two feet tall. Lent will begin Wednesday, with Easter coming April 12.
“We’ll have to start making the eggs and bunnies,” Anna said. “There is a lot of work involved with Easter … We used to make 16-pound eggs.”
Easter means even longer workweeks for the Bergs – yet they’re accustomed to that. They’re also well-versed in taking vacation days, or weeks, from their day jobs to accommodate the need for expanded chocolate production.
But, as the family matriarch and co-owner said: “We love what we do.”