EAT WASHINGTON/ Eric Nelson's Artful Del Ray Dream

Photo by John Arundel Eric Nelson of Del Ray left the fast-paced lobbying world of DC to follow his entreprenurial dream of launching two successful businesses in Del Ray, Artfully Chocolate and Artfully Paper. He never looked back.

By Julia Watson
 
ALEXANDRIA, VA. - It is a rare moment, says Rob Kingsbury and Eric Nelson, owners of Artfully Chocolate/Kingsbury Confections, that the two are found together, one of them holding the fort at the Alexandria store, the other manning the 14th St NW location, probably behind the bar area creating chocolate-based cocktails and drinks.

Photo by John Arundel Nelson's artwork graces the walls of his cocoa shop in Del Ray.

The two companies joined together last year to create ACKC Cocoa Bar Alexandria in Del Ray, combining their separate passions for chocolate. Last week, Nelson announced that in August, Artfully Chocolate will move from Del Ray to 506 John Carlyle Street near the United States Patent & Trademark Office and will be morphing into Artfully Gifts and Chocolate.
 
Eric Nelson is the chocolatier. Astonishingly he's never had a formal lesson in the craft. His New England great-grandparents and grandparents were in the sugar candy business.
 
"My family had a ridiculous amount of cookbooks," Eric says. "I went through them with my mother and found recipes that were family-based."
 
He began tweaking them, adding some edge to come up with an array of chocolates of his own that was more creative. He plays with flavors, adding tastes from unexpected sources like lavender.

"Eric's being really modest," interrupts Kingsbury. "He's a genius. His chocolates are really incredibly wonderful. They're all hand-made, hand-dipped, not processed," which gives them a slightly rustic appeal.
 
The pair haven't fallen for the current fashion for decorating their chocolates with immaculate transfer sheet designs that lend chocolates an art-stamp look.
 

Photo by John Arundel Nelson greets a customer at ACKC Cocoa Bar Alexandria.

While they respect other confectioners' work in that field, they want to create chocolates that will remain desirable because of their taste once the 'painted' trend is over.
 
The most popular flavor combination currently is chipotle-cinnamon. Nelson likes the lavender-pistachio combination, while Kingsbury admits a bite of champagne truffle perks him up if he's feeling low.
 
Both, however, agree the classic hazlenut truffle is hard to beat.

They plan to open a kitchen shortly just around the corner to give classes on how to make chocolates the ACKC way - including lessons on the transfer sheet process.
 
If You're Going...

Artfully Chocolate/Kingsbury Confections
2003a Mount Vernon Ave, Alexandria, 703 635 7917

Julia Watson is a British journalist who began writing about food for the Sunday Times Magazine, then The Observer magazine of those two London Sunday newspapers. She's also written about food for The Washington Post and The National Interest and has been United Press International's Food Writer, and chef profiler for the Current group of newspapers in Washington. Read her food blog at www.EatWashington.com.

Photo by John Arundel The two companies joined together last year to create ACKC Cocoa Bar Alexandria in Del Ray, combining their separate passions for chocolate.