David Bradley Chocolatier is the perfect place to shop for sweets, especially for the upcoming holiday season. This chocolate shop is located eleven minutes away from Mercer’s West Windsor campus at 92 N Main St, Windsor, NJ. The shop is open daily from 9 am to 6 pm and closes later on Fridays at 8 pm. There is also a pop-up shop that opened up in Quakerbridge Mall for the holiday season.
As you step into the shop, you’ll be met with a delightful chocolatey scent and a friendly greeting from the staff, who are ready to assist you. The creative displays add to the holiday festive feeling and each treat is organized in beautiful packaging. There were even samples provided to help out customers decide which sweet treat to eat.
The chocolate shop includes various combinations of chocolate sweets from the regular chocolate-covered fruit which are thirty-two dollars to the chocolate-covered bacon which are eleven dollars.
Eating a chocolate-covered strawberry is like enjoying a delightful mix of sweet, juicy, and rich chocolate goodness, with a satisfying crunch as you take your first bite. The chocolate-covered bacon, though strange, is an intriguing combination of velvety, rich chocolate and perfectly crisp, smoky bacon.
Customer, Jacqueline Holdsworth, says, “I like how fresh and delicious the chocolates are…my kids like the chocolate covered pretzels and the graham crackers…the chocolate’s just delicious.”
Other products include chocolate-covered pretzels, chocolate-covered cookies, chocolate coconut clusters, pecan caramel turtles, and much more. Prices for these items range from six dollars to fifty dollars depending on the amount or weight of the product you want.
Owner, Christine O’Brian, is the daughter of the founders Bob and Mary Hicks. The idea of the chocolate shop came to light because Mr. Hick’s mother was looking to keep busy.
O’Brian says, “You know how grandparents are…they are workers…they’re part of a different generation. My grandmother wanted something to do, and she was older, and my dad said ‘Hey, let’s open a candy store for you’ so she agreed.”
Like most family businesses, O’Brian did not always plan to continue on the business’s legacy.
She said, “When you have a family business, it just kind of sucks you in. So myself and my brothers, we all went and did our own thing for a while, and then we all fully matriculated back to it.”
Regardless, the business grew on her and allowed her an outlet to express her creativity.
O’Brian says, “Our business is really fun…we are constantly changing, coming up with new ideas, doing things that are new and inventive for each season and we have holidays and all that allows you to become very creative…and it makes a happier workplace because people aren’t stuck doing the same thing over and over again or see the same thing over and over again.” .
Jennifer Hunter, a sales associate at David Bradley Chocolatier, loves her job because she gets to be herself and share her friendliness with others.
Hunter says she hopes customers “feel like a family when they leave.”
David Bradley Chocolatier’s great customer service and delicious chocolates make it a place worth visiting. MCCC students hoping to get into the holiday spirit can shop around the chocolate shop for some sweet treats.
Part of the joy of the business is seeing the children of the employees and the faithful customers grow up. O’Brian feels the love and loyalty of her customers which makes the job even better.
O’Brian says, “For people to stick with you that long and go through the thick and thin with you, that’s a pretty neat thing.”
