Atelier Colette sits sweetly atop Beacon Hill
Beacon Hill has become a little more charming and a little bit French with the recent opening of the lovely chocolate shop Atelier Colette. Owned by Nathalie and Franck Beddiar, the French couple who owns Colette Bakery in Medford, Melrose, and soon in Boston’s South End, Atelier Colette sits almost diagonally across from the State House on Beacon Street. It is an authentic French chocolaterie that makes chocolate bonbons, bars, coated nuts, holiday shapes, and more. Everything is made in-house, and you can watch master chocolatier Yann Dufour work in his spotless kitchen through the shop window.
The space was formerly a deli the Beddiars bought in 2017 and operated until COVID forced its closure. The neighborhood has been eagerly waiting to see what would emerge from behind the paper-covered windows. Named in memory of Nathalie’s grandmother Colette, the shop’s design is similar to other French chocolateries: minimalist, elegant, and a bit (but not over-the-top) precious. This is not a candy store; it’s a serious chocolate shop where high-quality couverture chocolate from the French company Chocolaterie de L’Opera is melted, tempered, mixed, and shaped into beautiful chocolates, most notably little square bonbons filled with ganache (a creamy-smooth mixture of chocolate, cream, and butter). Flavors include lavender, chai, clementine, and chestnut honey. Another delicious filling is praline (prahlee-nay), a nut paste made from roasted, caramelized, and ground hazelnuts, almonds, and other nuts. There are also dark, milk, and caramelized white chocolate bars, chocolate-coated candied orange rind, pates de fruit, and nut- and dried fruit-dotted chocolate disks called mendiants. Holidays bring all sorts of molded chocolates, and the large owls, filled with small chocolate pieces, now give way to Santa Claus, Christmas trees, and various chocolate ornaments. Hotel guests at XV Beacon directly across the street, State House staff, Suffolk University students, and sightseeing tourists have discovered the new shop. Now it’s your turn.
Atelier Colette is at 10 Beacon St., Boston, 617-742-4000, www.ateliercolettestore.com. Prices range from $11 to $15 for chocolate bars (tablettes), $20 for coated nuts (bille), and $35 and $60 for boxes of bonbons.