By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — A new spot for sweets will be unboxed this week when Bridgewater Chocolate welcomes customers Thursday to its store in Parker Harding Plaza.

The store, at 165 Main St. in the rear of the plaza, has been designed with a special focus: a dedicated sampling bar where customers can try different varieties of chocolate, and a “by-the-piece” bar where they can purchase a customized collection of the chocolates they desire, according to Marlene Steiner, brand director for Bridgewater. 

The new Bridgewater Chocolate store also will offer the chocolatier’s top sellers, she said, including “tortles,” combining nuts, caramel and chocolate.

The Westport store is Bridgewater’s fourth, and the first in southwestern Connecticut for the business, which is headquartered in Brookfield. In addition to the Bridgewater factory and store there, the business has a second store in Brookfield and another in West Hartford.

The company was founded in 1995 in the small upstate town of Bridgewater by Erik Landegren, a Swedish chef at Aquavit restaurant in Manhattan. He began selling European-style chocolates in a village store, eventually partnering with Andrew Blauner, who co-owns the company today, according to Steiner.

Bridgewater Chocolate has been interested in opening in Westport for nearly a year, after selling its chocolates at a pop-up store on Church Lane during the holiday season last year. 

The pop-up store was successful, and company officials started looking for permanent premises in Westport last January, signing a lease at the new location in early spring, said Steiner, a graduate of Fairfield University.

The new store’s location, next to the GG & Joe coffee shop, has created “a culinary corner,” offering both coffee and chocolates, she said.

Bridgewater’s Westport store manager, Kelley Rivadeneira, has led a life filled with a love of chocolate, she said.

Her father worked for the Mars candy company, famous for Snickers candy bars and M&Ms, and she previously worked for a Belgian chocolate company. 

“There is so much history behind chocolate,” Rivadeneira said, “For instance, who was the inventor of the praline?” and when were chocolates first filled with sweet jellies and other fillings? Pralines were created by the Belgian chocolatier, Jean Neuhaus Jr. in 1857, she said.

Rivadeneira and the Bridgewater Chocolate team invite customers to visit the Westport store when it opens Thursday.

“When you want to travel back in time and remember your childhood, come here to get an elevated [chocolate] experience,” she said.

Bridgewater Chocolate, 165 Main St., will be open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call 203-826-8777.

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Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist and journalism teacher for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman newspaper for 10 years and currently teaches journalism at Southern Connecticut State University.