Chocolate Walk -- Kent, OH


The Kent Chocolate Walk hosted by Main Street Kent has been going on for the last few years, but we've always had another event. This year due to there being so many interested participants the website kept crashing on the day to buy tickets and I happened to snag one when there were about 20 left.

Think of the Kent Chocolate Walk like adult trick or treating with no costumes, you walk from business to business picking up chocolate which gives you an opportunity to explore places in Kent you might not have previously visited. In our case it also helped provide some additional traffic to Kent businesses on a rainy, cold February day -- we stopped at both Tree City Coffee & Pastry for coffee and Belleria Pizza & Italian Restaurant for a slice of pizza after we were done at the Chocolate Walk.

For the 2018 Chocolate Walk the following businesses participated:

-Belleria Pizza & Italian Restaurant
-Bent Tree Coffee Roasters
-Carnaby Street Style
-Cracked Escape**
-Downtown Gallery (Kent State University, School of Art Collection and Galleries)
-Each + Every
-Empire Kent
-Gracylane Kent
-Hometown Bank
-Kent Cheesemonger
-Kent State University Hotel & Conference Center
-McKay Bricker Framing & Black Squirrel Gifts
-One Love Yoga Boutique
-Peace, Love and Little Donuts of Kent
-Popped!
-Red Letter Days of Kent
-Rise and Shine Cafe
-Scribbles Coffee Co.
-Standing Rock Jewelers
-Scribbles Coffee Co.
-Shop Sugar Rush
-Taco Tonto's—Kent
-Traveling Spa Girl
-Tree City Coffee & Pastry
-Troppus Projects**
-Troy Grille
-Twisted Meltz

** = new or new to us business

As someone who was born and raised in Portage County, I've always considered it my "home" and Dave and I loved visiting Kent every weekend when we lived in Ravenna. Now we're feeling a little bit out of the loop on the new, fun businesses and ventures coming to Kent and are planning to make more of an effort to check out the new and exciting things going on in 2018. That short term goal is coupled with a long-term goal of moving closer to Kent, I can't wait for that day!

We decided when I purchased the tickets that we probably only needed one, Dave walked with me and then we shared all of the treats. We got plenty of chocolate and this freed up a ticket for another participant. Of course, the day of the Chocolate Walk was rainy -- the rain ranged from drizzle to downpour, but all of us soldiered on for our walk.

At check-in we were provided with both a list of participating locations and a map. We decided on a strategy that involved looping down one side of Erie Street before creating a loop that walked us to all of the businesses on Water Street all the way to Bent Tree Coffee Roasters and then back down through Acorn Alley before ending at Tree City Coffee (because we knew from the start we would need coffee with all of this chocolate).




The offerings at the Kent State Hotel and Conference Center.



How cute are these colorful bags from Troppus Projects a new art space in Kent? The inside contained multi-color chocolate drizzled pretzels and a truffle.


Here we are taking a break between McKay Bricker Framing & Black Squirrel Gifts and Downtown Gallery. 
  

Our entire chocolate haul --


  
Bag of exotic chocolates from Shop Sugar Rush (including a matcha kit kat)
Cake Pop from Each & Every.
Chocolate Covered Oreo from Cracked

Chocolate Acorns from Popped!


  


Chocolate + Cheddar Fudge from the Kent Cheesemonger
  


It's been a little over a week and we're most of the way through our chocolate samples at this point, everything was excellent. Despite the rainy weather all of the participating business owners and Chocolate Walkers were in good spirits. Especially at the coffee shops we saw people purchasing coffee and items to take with them on the walk. Neither of us had ever been in Taco Tontos and now we're planning to go there as well as to Cracked in the near future.

Ohio Wanderlust Rating for the 2018 Kent Chocolate Walk: 



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