Leena Caligiure, Neighbor

It all started in 1999 in our apartment kitchen in New York.  I was looking for favors for my son’s first birthday and couldn’t find anything that looked good, tasted good and was affordable.  I decided to  take a chocolate course and made the favors myself. The response was fantastic.  Soon, I started getting orders for showers, birthdays, weddings and sweet sixteens.  I spent my days working full time as a corporate banking executive, my evenings taking care of my one year old and my nights (well into the nights) making chocolates. This began my passion for chocolates. Soon I was selling to specialty gourmet shops in New York City as well as East Hampton, Long Island. I finally took the plunge and became a full time entrepreneur, and never looked back. I took a break from chocolates to expand my family and two more kids later we decided to relocate to Florida in 2004. Soon my children were older and attending school full time and I was itching to get back into chocolates. We started up the business again in 2008, working out of a gourmet kitchen inside Famous Tate’s appliance center in Valrico. It was an honor working with such wonderful and supportive people.

We had the opportunity to have our Life-size Chocolate Footballs at the Superbowl XLIII in Tampa. That experience opened the doors for us to supply all the dessert items at the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby in 2009. What an unbelievable experience!!<br><br>It had been an amazing ride!  Late in 2009 we had an opportunity to open up a retail shop in our local community. We’ve met so many great people in our community, and truly feel honored to be a part of it.<br><br>Our Mission Statement: We strive to bring high quality, innovative food concepts to the mainstream consumer at reasonable prices.<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>