Cacao, Nuts, Fruit And Chocolate Shop Opens In JP

JAMAICA PLAIN, MA — It's possible you've seen the sign across from JP Licks and a couple doors down from Same Ole Place. Cacao: There's a new nut and chocolate shop in town, folks, and they serve frozen hot chocolate.

"It's our most popular item," Cacao's owner Leo Baez told Patch. "We have people come in every day for it."

But there's more here.

The shop opened quietly last month on Centre Street after renovations of the narrow storefront were completed. Inside visitors are welcomed by the smell of roasted nuts and chocolates.

The nuts come mostly from California, unless it's a specialty nut like the Turkish Pistachios. The chocolate is from Belgium for now.

Baez and his partner and fiance Perla Rosario roast and spice the nuts in house, and they create their own chocolate barks and mendaiants and other chocolates here, too.

And although people are incredulous when they tell them, this is their first shop.

Baez said his family had cashew trees in the Dominican Republic and he always loved eating the cashews right from the tree. In the back of his mind he wanted to open a nut shop one day. He grew up in JP, going to Boston Public Schools and then worked for 13 years for a maintenance company before he started his own maintenance company about four years ago. He's had experience with business, but not something like this he said.

At first he was nervous about the customer relations part of the job and was surprised with that came easy for him.

"The biggest surprise is how much we love it," Baez said.

The two describe the shop as a relaxed, fun and modern shop where folks can come in from the neighborhood without feeling pressure and buy a bag of treats for whatever price fits them.

"If you come in and tell us your budget is $5, we can put together something nice for you. We also have people coming in to spend a bit more," said Baez. "We want this place to be where you can find rare nuts like the Turkish pistachios and where you find your favorites."

Throughout the store there are images of cacao farming, including one of his Baez's Rosario's uncle cutting down cacao. The duo are working toward importing chocolate from the family farm in the Dominican Republic.

"This is my favorite new store in JP," said Mark Stockman who came in on a recent Thursday. He's already a regular here and recommends the mendiants, a custom made disc mixed of chocolate and nuts. "You must come to this store."

Baez and Rosario said so far they've gotten a lot of love from customers and they're interested in feedback as they get their feet.

"It's hard to explain in a few words what we have to offer. You can get chocolate and nuts at a lot of places, but you get something more here. You have to come and see it," Baez said.

The store will be open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Sign up for the free newsletter and get more breaking Boston news and news alerts like this direct to your inbox. Did we mention it was free?

Got something to add?
Sign up to post to Patch and tell your neighbors what's going on in and around JP. Post anything from calendar events to a column or blog post folks in the neighborhood should know. Our philosophy is the more neighborhood watchers the better.

Photos by Jenna Fisher /Patch Staff. She can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).