Bean to Star

IN THE KEHR’S FACTORY on 36th and Lisbon, even the wall clock is from a bygone time. In the front room that used to operate as the confections shop, glass shelves display old candy-making equipment from the turn of the century. Owner Paul Martinka points to a framed collage of photos – of the shop from back in the day, ladies working the counter near rows of pink and red heart-shaped candy boxes, pics of a younger Paul with his mentor Bill Kehr, and with former employees to whom Paul credits the shop’s success. Their names are Pearl (founder B.D.’s wife), Lauretta, Dolores, Adeline.

This holiday season, Kehr’s is rolling out a series of bean-to-bar chocolates. Unlike the company’s other candies, which are made by blending chocolate from various manufacturers, they’re sourcing the cacao beans and making the chocolate. After months of collecting the tools needed to make chocolate from the ground nibs, the company will officially step into the bean-to-bar industry with a selection of dark, multi-origin chocolate bars named after Kehr’s iconic “ladies.” It’s all part of Paul’s conviction that, “You gotta keep your ear to the ground and keep changing.”