Chocolate shop making return to its Mass Ave roots

The Best Chocolate in Town will sell truffles at its new storefront at 884 Massachusetts Ave. (Photo provided by The Best Chocolate in Town)

The Best Chocolate in Town sweets shop is planning a return to a familiar part of Indianapolis.

The store will open informally March 1 at 884 Massachusetts Ave., in the same retail strip where The Best Chocolate in Town served customers from 2007 to 2020.

Carrie Abbott, owner of The Best Chocolate in Town and its parent company, Newfangled Confections, said she’s leaving a pop-up store location in the Fashion Mall at Keystone because of the chance to reconnect with the shop’s Mass Ave roots.

“I can’t wait for the original fans to come by, accidentally or on purpose,” Abbott said. “Then there are all these new families because of the revitalization of walking neighborhoods around the east end of Mass Ave.”

Abbott purchased the equipment, recipes and intellectual property of The Best Chocolate in Town in February 2020, when Best Chocolate founder Elizabeth Garber closed the Mass Ave store.

With Newfangled Chocolate, Abbott already had a nationally established product, Frittle candy—a cross between peanut brittle and peanut fudge—and a 7,000-square-foot production facility near the intersection of 13th and Illinois streets.

To perpetuate The Best Chocolate in Town as an in-person retail business, Abbott opened a series of pop-up stores during the pandemic. Two of these spots were in the Fashion Mall.

“I love returning to Mass Ave, because it’s such a sweet story that’s been told for so many years,” Abbott said. “Elizabeth did such a great job on Mass Ave, and she was a pioneer for women-owned businesses on the east end of Mass Ave.”

The building that’s home to the past and future Best Chocolate in Town locations is bookended by the Mimi Blue Meatballs and Roosters Kitchen restaurants.

Garber’s version of the candy store occupied 880-882 Massachusetts Ave. City Dogs Grocery occupied the 882-884 address until it closed last August. City Dogs presently operates in Speedway and Fountain Square.

White Moth cosmetic tattoo studio now occupies 880 Massachusetts Ave., and the new Best Chocolate store will take up 1,000 square feet at 884 Massachusetts Ave.

The store will be open Wednesday through Monday, with hours of noon to 6 p.m., except for 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. operations on Saturday.

Abbott said she’s not counting on blockbuster business during the early days of the store’s homecoming.

“I have to get people in the door,” she said. “You never had to worry about the Fashion Mall. It was the perfect temperature all the time. But losing a little revenue in the beginning will be worth it, because we get to return downtown.”