Quick Take
Three years after closing Mutari Chocolate House, owners Stephen Beaumier and Katy Oursler have opened The Chocolate Studio in downtown Santa Cruz for a three-month pop-up in the former Flower Bar space on Cedar Street. The new chocolate-centric café offers some of the handmade chocolates, bars and truffles known to fans, as well as baked goods from Capitola-based Dani O Bakeshop and coffee, and aims to add a savory menu and beverage program later this spring.
Almost three years to the day since Mutari Chocolate House closed on Front Street, chocolate-centric couple Katy Oursler and Stephen Beaumier have partnered on a new business in downtown Santa Cruz, this time in the former Flower Bar on Cedar Street.
The Chocolate Studio opened in early February, and will remain through April as a pop-up in the café space vacated by Flower Bar in November. After the spring, Oursler and Beaumier will consider moving in permanently, depending on community response. It’s currently open Wednesday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Inside, visitors will find hand-crafted, ethically sourced truffles, chocolates and bars from Beaumier’s White Label and Oursler’s Mutari Craft Chocolate, and one thick, luscious European-style sipping chocolate made with coconut milk on tap. Orders from Mutari’s online store will also be available for pick up from the café, in addition to delivering its products locally and shipping nationally.
But The Chocolate Studio, headed by Beaumier, will include a wider selection of food and beverages than the former chocolate cafés, including coffee, beer and wine, locally made pastries and sourdough bread, and larger savory options.
Later this spring, Beaumier plans to draw on his pre-chocolate culinary career working in some of the Bay Area’s finest kitchens, including Cyrus in Geyserville and Quince in San Francisco, to create a lunch and evening menu. It’s still being developed, but will include light fare with California and French influences – dishes like a roasted maitake muffuletta sandwich, a salad with fresh butter lettuces, pecorino cheese and toasted pine nuts, and a “proper” cheese and charcuterie plate with thoughtful accoutrements, said Beaumier.
Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz
A beer and wine list, as well as a robust menu of nonalcoholic drinks, will be added to the menu in the coming weeks, joining a coffee menu using beans from Ikon Roastery in San Francisco.
Baker Danielle Orlando of Dani O Bakeshop drops off fresh croissants, muffins and sourdough breads daily, all made with organic stone-ground flour. A professionally trained baker, alumna of Craftsman and Wolves bakery and café in San Francisco and former pastry chef at The Ritz-Carlton hotel in Half Moon Bay, Orlando launched Dani O last fall in the Capitola Mall, specializing in sourdough breads and pastries made with whole grains and without refined sugars.
Since partnering with the Chocolate Studio, all of the chocolate used in Dani O’s baked goods, like the round, glossy chocolate croissants, comes from White Label, and Orlando is relaunching her popular chocolate sourdough bread, infused with cocoa and dotted with chocolate chunks.
Oursler hinted at more possibilities in the future, like chocolate tastings and other events, but she and Beaumier are taking things one day at a time as they grow into the new space.
“I’m drawing on Stephen’s experience and my history with events to have it be more than just chocolate,” she said.
912 Cedar St., Santa Cruz; mutarichocolate.com.
FOR THE RECORD 02-24-25 2:40 P.M.: This story has been updated to clarify ownership of Mutari Craft Chocolates, White Label Chocolate, and the Chocolate Studio.
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