When customers taste their first piece of Black Mountain Chocolate, owner Brent Peters likes to watch their faces. As 70 percent pure dark chocolate melts in their mouths, the taste evolves with natural flavors — cherry, nuts, sometimes even tobacco — eliciting expressions of surprise and delight. “It never gets old,” Peters says.
Picture windows provide a peek into the “visible factory,” where cocoa beans from the Dominican Republic become chocolate bars and gelato, espresso brownies and salted caramel tarts.
From March to November, visitors can take a tour or try a guided tasting. Peters thrives on discovery, too, experimenting with truffle flavors like wildflower-honey and lavender-chamomile. “I get to come in here and play with my food,” he says. “I’m always trying to match things up and see what new combinations I can discover.”
Black Mountain Chocolate
732 Trade Street Northwest
Winston-Salem, NC 27101
(336) 293-4698
blackmountainchocolate.com
In North Carolina, spring brings the scent of fresh-cut grass and memories of helping Dad mow the lawn.
Nostalgic burger joints are like time machines, delivering something extra special that keeps us coming back.
This tiny city block in downtown Greensboro once had a gigantic reputation. Not so much for its charbroiled beef patties — though they, too, were plentiful — but for its colorful characters and their wild shenanigans.
In the 1950s, as Americans hit freshly paved roads in shiny new cars during the postwar boom, a new kind of restaurant took shape: the drive-in. From those first thin patties to the elaborate gourmet hamburgers of today, North Carolina has spent the past 80 years making burger history.
