How Li-Lac Chocolates Prepares for its Super Bowl

By Anthony Paradiso

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and what better than to write about the Village’s oldest chocolate shop, Li-Lac for the issue of February.

I wrote about Li-Lac Chocolates for the December issue of Village View. I was blown away by the appreciation they showed for our coverage. Our photographer Bob Cooley, who has always helped bring our newspaper to life with his work, texted me saying my article is framed inside the store on Bleecker Street. Of course, good relationships are two-way streets and Chris Taylor.

I talked to Chris as he lay in bed on a cold January morning after he had returned to the U.S. from Peru. Chris and I talked on “WhatsApp,” and he sent me photos of him holding a Cacao pod. I’d heard about these cacao plants that are the source of chocolate, but I hadn’t seen one so up close. Li-Lac co-owner, Chris and I discussed Valentine’s Day and how a big artisanal chocolate brand prepares for their “SUPER BOWL.”

Preparation plus Intensity plus Execution (PIE) = Success

I played high school hockey and before every game, our team held meetings to discuss our gameplan. Our coaches not only scouted our opponents but wrote up “game notes” and at the end of almost every packet I read were the words “Preparation + Intensity + Execution= Wins.” This sticks with me to this day because it was such a good way to describe the steps that one must take to be successful in sports and I’m starting to think it applies in the business world.

Li-Lac Chocolates starts planning for Valentines Day, six-eight months before hand. At that time, the company will start ordering “hard boxes” or, the signature gift boxes on lilacchocolates.com. These items are a big part of the company’s sales and since people buy gifts for each other on Valentines—it’s important for these to be stocked and ready to go. “In the summer, you guess what sales will be in February and you order 5,000 hard boxes. If you guess right, it’s a good season and if you guess wrong, the store is empty and lots of customers get disappointed.”

Before 2014, Li-Lac was a smaller company whose presence included two locations in Greenwich Village and one in Grand Central Terminal. That year, Li-Lac moved its production facility to Brooklyn’s Industry City complex which has made the company that began in a little shop on Christopher Street into one of the city’s giants.

Taylor described why growing the company he first purchased in 2011 was necessary for its survival.

“Being small was more fun but then the truth is if we stayed that same size we wouldn’t be around today. It’s just the logic of business in New York City with the high cost; you either grow or you disappear. Standing still is not an option.”

Just like the “P.I.E. formula for success” that my old coach gave to us, a ‘never satisfied’ attitude embodies the spirit behind the people at Li-Lac.

Pivoting towards the key products that Li-Lac sells at this lovely time of year we have to mention truffles and chocolate covered strawberries. If anyone’s seen the TV or radio commercials that play at this time of year, they know that chocolate strawberries are a popular Valentine’s Day treat. Although they seem innocent enough, bringing the best strawberries to the shelves on this chocolatier’s super bowl is harder than it seems.

“A lot of that stuff that we do has to be made fresh. Our strawberries have to be made fresh that day and our truffles don’t have a long shelf-life because we don’t put preservatives in the cream. Whether you make a dozen or 10,000 truffles, they still have to be made the evening before and making that many truffles the evening before is not easy.”

No matter how competent the people working for a company are, there will always be unforeseen circumstances that force a person or a business to adapt. Li-Lac are financially capable of buying ingredients such as cream directly from manufacturers, which smaller companies cannot do and to his chagrin, Taylor described by saying, “whether you like it or not, it’s become a corporate world.”

Last year, the industry had a shortage when it came to CREAM! Cream is a critical ingredient in chocolate truffles, which are one of the main products that Li-Lac sells throughout the year, both in small bags and larger boxes. But by making calls, pulling strings and doing what they had to do, they overcame this roadblock, a trial which the Li-Lac co-owner summed up as:

“Business is full of challenges, it’s just the way it is. That’s sort of what makes it fun, it would be boring if everything was easy, right?

A decline in the amount of cocoa available on the market was seen in 2023. According to Taylor,  climate issues in West Africa (home to 70% of the world’s supply) have raised prices for raw cocoa 80% since the Fall.

Any company that wants to succeed nowadays needs a strong Internet presence. When Taylor and Cirone bought the company in 2011, you didn’t need it as much—but in the post-covid age, you do.

“When the [COVID] lockdowns hit, we never planned for [Li-Lac’s] Internet [presence] to become so big and just all the sudden, all the stores were closed. Our Internet sales started growing like crazy and just logistically we were completely unprepared for it, but you just make it happen.”

The sobering part of my interview with Chris was the realization that New York City is not going to stop being a BRUTAL environment for small businesses. Of course, the plight of small businesses cannot be sympathized with as poor people can, but it’s still the tip of the iceberg that is the business climate. Two new eateries have opened on Carmine Street between Bleecker and Bedford, where two have closed recently. One is “The Ivy” Coffee shop—that must be run by an owner undaunted by this fact, but the bottom-line is, unless that shop can increase its sales, significantly, it will be hard to stay afloat in an economic sea that keeps you guessing how dangerous it really is.

Based on my elucidating conversation with Chris, it looks like this artisan chocolate brand that’s been in the Village for exactly 100 years is going to be just fine on valentine.