Li-Lac Chocolates Celebrates 95 Years: Inside Manhattan's Oldest Chocolate House
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It’s been 95 years since George Demetrious, founder of Li-Lac Chocolates, came to New York City from Greece and began making and selling chocolate in Greenwich Village. And though the years have brought a good amount of change, a lot has remained the same.
At a recent meeting at Li-Lac’s factory and store in Industry City, owner Anthony Cirone told me about the passionate following the company has garnered over the years, a fan base that has been central to its success and informs its legacy. “We have generations of families who date back to that era, even people who don’t live in the city anymore,” said Cirone. “They tell us all the time about how Li-Lac was always part of their life in the Village.”
To the delight of these longtime fans, the Li-Lac team has worked to preserve Demetrious’ original recipes and techniques, and even the tools used to make confections are original, like the massive marble tables taken from the original Christopher Street location, or similar in style, like the large copper kettles used to cook the brand’s famous fudge.
Every confection in the brand’s portfolio of more than 120 different items is handmade at its Industry City factory, which is lined with windows that allow guests to peek in at the process. You can watch a worker place individual pieces of glacé fruit onto the enrobing belt or another skillfully funnel chocolate onto a tray lined with rainbow sprinkles to make nonpareils. Li-Lac designed their new Industry City factory (where it’s been making chocolates for just over four years) to not only create a logical flow for their production but to act as a “showpiece” to highlight the fresh, small-batch nature of everything they do. “[It’s] a big part of what we are and we wanted to show that off,” said Cirone.
Cirone told me that people are often surprised at the attention to detail and effort that goes into making each piece of chocolate. “[Customers] are surprised... and there’s a joy in that,” said Cirone. He describes the handcrafted nature of Li-Lac’s confections as a “labor of love.” Li-Lac staples, including its marzipan acorns, are made fresh every day using Demetrious’ original recipe and hand-dipped in dark chocolate. Master chocolatier and part-owner Anwar Khoder (who has been with the company since 1989) pointed me to the large copper kettles used to make the brand’s “legendary” fudge, noting that their fudge is slowly cooked over two hours while other companies make fudge using a premade mix. At the back of the factory, I watched workers fill molds in a variety of shapes – from the Empire State Building to a life-size football to a chocolate turkey that measures 10 inches tall – tapping as they went to ensure every crevice was filled with chocolate in order to get all of the intricate details in the final product.
Li-Lac draws its biggest business at the candy case, where guests curate custom chocolate boxes. It’s an old-school tradition that this enduring brand is best known for, and Li-Lac has benefitted from keeping things classic rather than jumping on trends. Cirone told me that the company regularly evaluates its selection (more than half of which are original recipes), tweaking based on what’s selling and what’s not and adding in flavors and confections that began as buzzy but continue to be popular (like peanut butter cups and salted caramels).
“What’s unique about old-school chocolate is it never goes out of style,” said Cirone. “We really see our mission as keeping the old-school traditions alive.”
