Guide: Long Island chocolate shops for Valentine's Day

Susannah Meinersman's shop, which she founded in 1979 with her late mother, Mary Alice, specializes in luxurious handmade variations on mass-produced treats such as Baci, made with hazelnut butter from Oregon, and Joyfuls, with dark chocolate and moist coconut. Among the popular truffles are Grand Marnier, amaretto and lavender mousse. You'll also find sea-salt caramels and heart-shaped wild berry creams.

Handmade chocolates — truffles, creams, barks and molded shapes — are the tip of the iceberg here at Long Island’s leading retailer of candy- and cake making supplies and a nexus for classes in baking, cake decorating and candy making.

At these two branches of this mini-chain, not only can you buy handcrafted chocolates, you can make them: Children’s chocolate parties are their stock in trade. At the Bellmore location, the enrobing machine is right on the sales floor.

Susan Ackerman’s specialties include barks and imaginative truffles as well as assorted platters, boxes and baskets made of chocolate (and then stuffed with chocolates).

Linda Johnson launched Chocology in 2014 as an online store, brick-and-mortaring it a few months before the pandemic. She made it through, and the chic shop sells assorted high-end chocolate, both in bars and in boxes of confections. You’ll find more than 60 brands from all over the world including Zotter (Austria), Hogarth (New Zealand), Venchi (Italy), Castronovo (Florida) and Goodnow Farms (Massachusetts). Chocolology makes its own fudge from Belgian chocolate and goat’s milk and butter.

Terrence Kenniff’s six-year-old shop sells a wide variety of chocolate bonbons, nut clusters and barks, but the jewels of his collection are the exquisite hand-painted truffles which come in scores of variations. While you browse, enjoy a cup of hot chocolate made with milk, cream and Belgian chocolate. This is also one of the few places on Long Island to sell the viral Dubai chocolate bar.

Chocolatier Ursula XVll (the French number 17, dix-sept, is pronounced "diss-ett") creates bonbons, bars and hot-chocolate bombs inspired by the seasons and the bounty of the North Fork. Order online any time; visit the shop Thursday through Monday (more hours the week of Valentine's Day, follow @dissetchocolate on Instagram).

Founded in 1953, Emile’s got new owners (Jackie and Michael Brown) and a face-lift in 2017, but virtually nothing has changed among the creams, caramels, molasses sponge and more still handcrafted using the recipes of founder Emile Wageknecht, a German confectioner who worked at legendary Schrafft’s restaurant in New York City.

Near the register of this enchanted cottage are counters full of housemade bonbons, clusters and fudge, while a warren of tiny rooms contain everything you’ll need to make your own candies or decorate your own cakes.

Kerri Jones has presided over Suffolk’s leading chocolatier-supply house since 1991, but also sells homemade chocolates, including buttercrunch, nut caramels and turtles, peanut butter cups, marshmallows and truffles. Fudge comes in varieties such as rainbow cookie and tiramisu. There are chocolate-covered strawberries for Valentine’s Day and chocolate-covered fruit trays all year-round.

Each of the Island’s four Kilwins makes the company’s signature Mackinac Island fudge, kneaded and paddled into loaves (instead of baked in a pan) to dispel any trace of graininess. Most of the other confections are also made in-house with Kilwins’ proprietary fair trade chocolate. (Other locations: Patchogue, Huntington, Port Jefferson).

Established in 1985, Krön specializes in the "Budapest truffle," an old-world confection made from nothing more than fresh cream and dark chocolate. You’ll also find a wide range of other chocolates, loose, boxed or arranged on one-of-a-kind trays and platters. There’s a large selection of pareve, vegan and lactose-free chocolates.

Richard Lazar, a second-generation chocolatier, has been joined by his two sons, Marc and Jeff. Lazar the elder characterized his wares as "old-fashioned European-style chocolates," singling out his caramel-nut patties for special mention. Custom chocolate-bar wrappers are printed on demand.

Nice Place makes a fine cup of coffee, serves terrific pastries and is one of the coolest places to hang out on this stretch of Suffolk’s South Shore. But the soul of the place belongs to chocolate. Owner Evan Church doesn’t make it, but he stocks hundreds of beautifully packaged bars from small producers all over the world. The mix is constantly changing but you might find Fossa Chocolate (and its chili-peanut-praline chocolate) from Singapore, Standout from Sweden (no flavors but its 70% single-origin from India might be his favorite), LetterPress (Los Angeles) made from cacao grown on the Bachelor’s Hall estate in Jamaica, or the chocolate-covered honeycomb from Mirzam Emirati in the United Arab Emirates.

After shuttering its original Aquebogue shop, NoFoChoCo opened two new ones in 2023: Mattituck also serves homemade ice cream and Riverhead doubles as a cafe (and the laboratory in which head chocolatier Steve Amaral makes his own chocolate from cacao beans). He is still inspired by the area’s bounty for his barks, bars, bonbons, truffles, pastries and more.

The Frigate, Long Island’s largest candy store (by a mile), does it all: bonbons, truffles, clusters, barks, fudge, chocolate-covered pretzels and popcorn, cookies and cake pops — plus smoothies, cookies and more.

In 1980, Mary Ellen Verbarg opened this Sayville institution, complete with the mahogany-and-glass cabinets from nearby (and long-gone) Beer’s ice cream parlor, salvaged by her husband, Ron. Among her confections are cherry cordials, jumbo dark-chocolate malted milk balls and milk chocolate — sea salt caramels.

Stan Boskoff presides over the business (founded in 1939) his parents and grandparents ran before him, selling confections that are almost extinct, including molasses sponge, with its honeycomb texture and complex flavor, and parlays, nougat wrapped in caramel and pecans. Chocolate-covered marshmallows come in a dozen varieties.

Sisters Aurora Masi Hirshfeld, Gina Masi and Maria Masi Schampier grew up in New Hyde Park and started shopping at The Sundae Palace shortly after it opened in 1977. The sisters bought it in 2008, gradually shifting its focus from chocolate making supplies to housemade chocolates. Favors such as cake pops are big business here. Of note: The Sundae Palace is a peanut-and-tree-nut-free zone.

In addition to candy making supplies, Lisa Hodes sells a wide range of housemade chocolates as well as the "Better Than A Cupcake" — two cookies (chocolate chip) sandwiching an icing (vanilla with mini M & M’s), for instance, enrobed in chocolate and sprinkled with more M & M’s. For Valentine's Day, the shop's viral Dubai chocolate (chocolate with pistachio and kadayif) will be molded into hearts.