The Sweeter Path Home: DC Chocolate Design

Cole and Kara Vanderleest behind the counter at Door County Chocolate Design and Cafe in Fish Creek. Photo by Victoria Danielle.

By Sue Grossardt

For many naps in the first six months of Khloe Vanderleest’s life, she was lulled to sleep by the soothing hum of a chocolate-making machine as it warmed and mixed small discs of chocolate. Every day was take-your-kid-to-work day for her parents Cole and Kara Vanderleest, who were busy building their DC Chocolate Design business at their storefront at the Top of the Hill Shop in Fish Creek. 

“It worked well for those first six months or so,” Kara said. 

“Until she learned how to crawl,” Cole interjected. 

But that’s how many family businesses have been built in Door County, with children at the feet of their parents. The Vanderleests were grateful their business had grown to a point where at least the chocolate kitchen wasn’t right down the hall from their bedroom. That’s how the couple had started their business in 2018, making hand-crafted truffles and chocolates out of their home east of Sister Bay. 

Making memories

Cole and Kara met in Milwaukee, where Cole had graduated from University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and where Kara had moved for a position at a large chocolate company after earning her degree in food science from the University of Illinois. Then Cole found an opportunity to return to Door County to be a manager at Fred and Fuzzy’s Waterfront Grill, about 40 minutes north of where he had grown up in Sturgeon Bay. They did the long-distance thing for a while – Kara working in Milwaukee at a large chocolate company and coming up on weekends – until she was ready to put her education to work on a more personal scale where food science, art and memories collide. 

“For me, chocolate is more than just a sweet treat,” Kara said. “When I was a kid, my family gathered around a chocolate box. I loved opening the advent calendar each day leading up to Christmas. It’s attached to family memories.”

And that’s what she tries to create now. With Cole entrenched in Door County, they began searching for a house where they could build a commercial kitchen for Kara to go to work creating a new Door County chocolate company. Armed with Kara’s technical skills and Cole’s local connections and marketing background, DC Chocolate Design was born.

It started with Door County chocolate bars and truffles that remain at the core of the business. The chocolate comes in discs that Kara melts down in the chocolate machine that Khloe found so soothing. Once melted, the chocolate is tempered to bring it back to a temperature that allows Kara to mold it into shape. She has earned a reputation for the beautiful colors and designs on her truffles, which she hand-paints using a colored cocoa butter she paints onto molds before adding the tempered chocolate.

Once the chocolate is poured, she leaves it to dry for a day or more, then she can add one of her homemade fillings such as butter cream, chocolate lavender, or caramel. Then the truffle is sealed with a final layer of chocolate on the bottom. 

“The sea salt honey caramel is my favorite,” Cole said. “Nobody I’ve seen makes anything like it. Kara has taken something that’s already classic and made it special.”

Her designs popped up on the shelves of a few retail locations and it wasn’t long before they began getting special orders for weddings, events and holidays. Those handmade, small-batch roots continue to add to their recipe for success. 

When Fred and Fuzzy’s closed in 2020, Cole came on full-time to focus on marketing and distribution. Then in the winter of 2021, it was time for this business to grow up and leave the house. That spring they opened the coffee shop in Fish Creek and added café to the name.

Today about 75 percent of their business comes through the café, where they have a full coffee bar in addition to chocolates, pastries, beer and wine.

And though the Vanderleests now have regular childcare, those customers are still occasionally greeted by Khloe, now 18 months old, as she “rearranges” merchandise on the lower shelves. 

She may even be called in to help in the lead-up to Christmas, their busiest time of the year. Though it promises to be a hectic time for this young family of three, it’s a season that takes Kara full circle. 

This will be the third year she has offered a truffle advent calendar. 

“Each day you get a different truffle,” she said. “And it reminds me of childhood.”

“It’s pretty cool to be a part of somebody’s Christmas tradition,” Cole said. 

Myles Dannhausen Jr. contributed to this article.