Vermont Journal III: Lake Champlain Chocolates

Lake  Champlain Chocolates Factory Store

Everyone waxes about how cosmopolitan Burlington is, how esthetic, how full of things to do, how great that you can watch art house movies of the kind you might not easily locate in other northern Vermont cities like Montpelier and St. Albans or int the Eastern Townships of Quebec. Everyone goes on about the old two and three story red brick buildings in the downtown area dating from the l9th Century and which exude a gentility amidst the sprawling modern University of Vermont Campus--all of this leading to the water carnival on the shores of Lake Champlain. But the real reason to come to Burlington is Lake  Champlain Chocolates which sports a factory outlet right as you depart from the central business district along Pine Street. There are those who live for the Lake Champlain Dark Mint Crunch and here you can buy it at bargain prices, in a welcoming atmosphere that includes spotless bathrooms that are the size of some New York apartments. There’s also a waiting area that features an extensive brochure collection offering a host of alternatives to drive to as you munch on your Signature Dark Chocolate Peppermint Crunch Bar. The Organic Cherries & Dark Chocolate is nothing to sneeze at either. Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War was a famous young adult novel. But the war is over when you get to Burlington. Lake Champlain Chocolates has won.

Diasporic Dining XVII: The Bathroom at Lake Champlain Chocolates

Photography by Hallie Cohen

Everyone looks for something in a vacation, whether it is the still waters of a far off beach, verdant pine forests, lush gardens or the serenity that comes from hiking to great heights to escape the din of cosmopolitan life. But for those who seek nothing more than a good bathroom along the way, the shitter at the Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory on Pine Street in Burlington, Vermont, with its anti-bacterial soap and its Kimberly-Clark sensor-equipped paper towel dispenser, should be the destination of choice. This bathroom, with cheery Vermont paintings on its tiled walls, is private and public at the same to time, and really lives up to the euphemism “restroom,” to the extent that it can only be used by one person at a time. It smells of a disinfectant more herbal and potent than what is used at some gyms. For exercise enthusiasts, this is a bathroom large enough to perform squat thrusts after you have indulged in the free chocolate samples inside the factory. Environmental matters are a popular cause in Vermont, where clean air is as important to the economy as oil is in Texas. The bathroom at Lake Champlain Chocolates is the equivalent of a gusher in Texas or a gold mine in Alaska. This is not a mere bathroom, but a clear statement that haste makes waste when it comes to taking a dump, and what makes the experience so satisfying is that it’s situated in an environment that’s totally consecrated to desserts.