One day last year, before Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate owners Jody and DC Hayden purchased the retail space next to Margaret Hodge’s Anchor Hardware—across M-22 from the Empire Village Inn—DC counted the number of cars that drove by and determined that Empire gets twice as much traffic north of the M-22 and M-72 intersection than south, where M-22 heads toward Benzie County. That sealed the deal.
Folks around Leelanau County frequently ask what Mimi Wheeler has been up to since she sold Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate last spring to food conscious entrepreneurs Jody Dotson and Dc Hayden. The answer—she launched MimisChocolateBlog.com, where she writes about chocolate recipes, traveling the world (Mimi spent much of the recent grueling winter in Guatemala and Ecuador) and introducing her fine food to new friends, and grandkids.
Beat the winter doldrums by joining Empire, Mich.-based Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate for a fun and educational tour to Ecuador. In March 2013 Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate founder Mimi Wheeler and experienced trip leader Jody Treter will lead a group of chocolate lovers to Ecuador for an 11-day tour focused on chocolate growing, fermenting, processing and exporting as well as indigenous entrepreneurship.