Marzipan of the Stars
Zsa Zsa likes the marzipan. A 90-year-old Chicago woman sends for the chocolate-coated graham crackers. And the special-occasion shoppers go for the chocolate champagne bottles filled with chocolate wafers.
Many of the customers at Bit of Sweetland, a 50-year-old family-run candy shop on West 3rd Street are European--there’s an especially large Hungarian clientele. Their favorites are lehar , a crunchy ball of toasted almonds and burnt sugar coated with chocolate; krokant , a thin almond wafer covered with dark chocolate, and, of course, the marzipan.
Katalin Coburn, daughter of the former owners--Hungarians who sold out seven years ago--still makes some of Sweetland’s traditional candies. But newer items--the chocolate champagne bottle and long-stemmed chocolate rosebuds, for instance--are the work of the shop’s current young chocolatier, Frank Ortlieb.
At one time, Ortlieb, 31, was headed for a career as a chef in Florida. Then his parents, Jo and Jean Ortlieb, took on the shop. Switching from French-style sauces and seafood to chocolate was a challenge. “I threw a lot of batches away,” Ortlieb admits. But now he’s got the feel and says that chocolate work is just as creative as cooking.
At $20 a pound, truffles are the most expensive chocolates Ortlieb makes. They come in seven flavors, and Ortlieb makes other flavors to order. He’ll also change such fine points as the delicate decorative trim on a candy. That means you can have pink striping on a Grand Marnier truffle for Valentine’s Day instead of the usual creamy shade.
The candies are made in small batches. “We like to have everything as fresh as can be, so we never make a whole bunch of anything,” says Jean Ortlieb, who is retired but still lends a hand.
The dark chocolate used for candy dipping is a blend of domestic brands. “I’ll match our chocolate with anybody’s,” Jean says proudly. The white chocolate is also domestic, and you can buy chunks of it for use in cooking. Chefs sometimes drop in to choose their favorites from a selection of European dark chocolates such as Sarotti and Lindt.
Other imports include liqueur-filled candies from Germany, chestnut puree from Switzerland, fruit-flavored sugar-free candies from France, sour hard candies from Belgium and farm licorice--candies shaped like farm animals--from Holland.
An interesting Sweetland specialty is chocolate-coated crystallized ginger. “It’s one of those things that if you like it, you really like it,” Jean Ortlieb says.
A recent innovation at the shop is the breakup bar, a 1 1/2-pound square of chocolate (white, milk or dark) molded into six rows of small squares, each containing a different nut--almonds, pecans, cashews, peanuts, hazelnuts and walnuts. The rows can be broken off as individual candies and the whole bar sells for $18.
Valentine specialties include traditional frilly red heart boxes filled with Bit of Sweetland’s own chocolates. Smaller items include heart lollipops, large and small kisses and a dark chocolate, heart-shaped box that contains three truffles--an elegant but affordable gift for $6.
For Frank Ortlieb, Valentine week is especially demanding; his hours are 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. through tomorrow. “Then,” he says, “I take a vacation.”
* Bit of Sweetland, 8560 West 3rd St . , Los Angeles, (213) 275-585. Open Monday through Friday 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday to 5 p.m.
