Alexandra Clark, the owner and head chocolatier of Bon Bon Bon, has always taken issue with the phrase, “like a kid in a candy shop.”
“It’s a real bummer that as you get older, you don’t get to be a ‘kid in a candy shop’ anymore, but there’s no reason chocolate shouldn’t be fun, even as an adult.”
Her metro Detroit shop Bon Bon Bon, a business focused on the tiny chocolate confections, is on a mission to make chocolate fun for everyone, no matter their age.
Bon Bon Bon opened in Hamtramck in 2014 in the back of a coney island, “the wrong way on a one way street,” Clark jokes. The business has grown dramatically since then, with locations in Midtown, Eastern Market, downtown Detroit, Ferndale and Ann Arbor.
Today, customers can order fun bon flavors like High Tea with earl grey flavors or Bumpy (a play on a Michigan classic, Bumpy Cake) dressed up in the shop’s signature tiny little pink boxes.
Read more: Metro Detroit’s Top Candy Stores to Make Your Kid’s Day
Typically, a business that is melting down chocolate to make sweets is less focused on the actual chocolate and more focused on the fun toppings and fillings, but for Bon Bon Bon, the chocolate itself is just as important.
The chocolate is imported directly from a sole roaster in Ecuador where the cacao beans are roasted and ground to Clark’s specifications.
As for what sets them apart from other chocolate shops, Clark is quick to answer.
“I think the biggest thing is the amount of sincerity,” she says. “From the way that we make things to the way we communicate about it.”
Q&A with Alexandra Clark
What’s your story? How did you get to where you are today?
“I only ever wanted to be a chocolatier. So that’s what I did. It didn’t occur to me that that was different or out of the ordinary until I was almost ready to open the shop. My family was very enthusiastic about the idea and they’re all very alternative kinds of people.
What was the response when you opened back in 2014?
“I went into it kind of blind, but it blew up immediately. It was more than i could have ever imagined. We have had this crew of people who have rotated in and out and in again and we have built it into something that can be around for a really long time.”
What’s it like juggling work and being a mom?
“I’m a pretty new mom–my twins are three. I think that it’s been pretty good for me because I love work and I work a lot. I have a lot of people who work for me, and I want to make sure their work experience is positive. Before kids, I never turned that off and it would exhaust me. We have a team of people, many of which are moms, and we have been able to learn together how to make it work. My kids are my number one priority and it has caused me to shut off before the end of day. I always just worked until I went to sleep and then I would wake up and work again. I probably needed that break and didn’t even know it.”
What challenges have you faced?
“I started the business on my own money that I got from a taxi cab accident I was in. I have creative control, but it came at an expense. I’m grateful for it, but I wonder if I would have traded that challenge for other challenges.
Getting through the pandemic was also really challenging–trying to figure out how to do the right thing when we didn’t know what to do. The orders we started receiving changed. Some were from people sending messages to their kids who were surgeons in the NICU, and reading those made me realize what we were doing was important, too. I think that the thing that I’m most proud of is that Bon Bon Bon has always found a way to do the best that they can with what they have at the time. I really admire that about the people I’ve worked with on this project–that ride or die mentality.”
Do you have advice for other busy moms?
“The best advice that I was ever given was when I was training for an iron distance triathlon. A friend of mine, B.D. Downs the founder of B.D.’s Mongolian Grill told me, ‘When you get to the point when you want to give up, just walk’. I’ve thought about that every single day since he said it.”
It’s about giving yourself space to not be a super high performer, but if you keep walking, then when you start again you aren’t a half a mile behind. I’ve thought about that a lot since becoming a mom.”
What are your goals for the future of the business?
“We need a new production facility. I’m so excited for that and for the entire production team. They’re so professional. I consider what they do a lost art, and to see these people that come from the most widely different backgrounds and yet are so talented at this one seemingly random, beautiful thing is so cool. I want our production to be beautiful and resource built.
I’m sure we’ll open a new location, but it has to be perfect. There are no concrete plans for that yet, just doing more of what makes sense and staying true to what we are: making really good chocolate to the best of our ability. Easier said than done! The thing I’m most proud of is the commitment across the company.”
Fast Talk with Alexandra Clark
Do you have a preferred coney island?
“Duly’s because sometimes they’re playing the [çifteli, an Albanian string instrument]. And hot take–I don’t like coney dogs, I get the donuts at Duly’s!”
All time favorite bon flavor?
“Nobody liked it but I loved it–black truffle.”
What shoe do you wear to work?
“I wear Danskos in professional honey. Strictly that color. We just got a puppy and she just chewed the back of them and I already recorded.”
Do you have a secret talent?
“I have never entered a pumpkin weight guessing contest and not won it. I’ve won three!”
Favorite movie to watch as a family?
“We all love Moana. My husband is Filipino so I think he feels a special connection, but it’s also just great.”
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