While The Girl and I were galavanting around the east coast last week one of the places that ranked pretty high on our “must see” list was Black Dinah Chocolatiers in Westbrook, Maine.
Last summer I read the book Lifesaving Lessons: Notes from an Accidental Mother by Linda Greenlaw. It was the third book of hers I had read. I LOVE reading about her take on island life and have been a big fan since I read her book The Lobster Chronicles over 10 years ago. Now not to sound like a total stalker, but Linda lives in Isle au Haut, Maine.
Isle au Haut is a tiny island off the coast of Maine with about 40 year round residents {although the population does explode during the summer months thanks to Acadia National Park}. My favorite part… the only way to get to Isle au Haut is via a mail boat. 🙂
Maine + Snow + Island + 40 Neighbors + Internet + Seclusion + No HOA + PRIVACY + Amazon can deliver = Mavis wants to move there full time and never look back.
Do you see why I’m so fascinated obsessed in love with Linda’s stories about life in Maine now? And why the HH thinks I need to be on meds because “Who moves to an island with only 40 residents? What if you get hurt? What if you run out of food? What if there is a Tsunami and the whole island goes under? What is wrong with you?”
Silly husband. You’d think after all these years he’d get me. Although, to his credit, he did say I could go ahead and move there and he’d come visit me. 😉 But that’s another story for another day.
Yada yada yada, in the book Lifesaving Lessons Linda wrote about her neighbors Kate and Steve who had originally moved to Isle au Haut to work at an inn on the island. It was a dream job for Kate and it was also where she begun to experiment with making chocolate.
Eventually the inn shut down and Kate and Steve needed to figure out a way to earn a living while staying on the island. Kate decided to take an online chocolate making course through Ecole chocolat and to open a small cafe in their home {which happened to be near one of the island’s major hiking trails}.
Black Dinah Cafe opened in 2007 with a light offering of pastries and lunch items but the main goal was to develop a chocolate business.
Remember, there are only about 40 year round residents on the island… but they had hoped some of the daily summer visitors would stop by. And they did. And when those visitors went home, they ordered Kate and Steve’s chocolates online. {High five!}
One thing led to another and soon Kate and Steve were selling their chocolate goodness in local shops. The peeps at Martha Stewart Living took notice and things really took off after Black Dinah Chocolatiers was featured in the magazine.
In 2011 Kate wrote the book – Desserted: Recipes and Tales from an Island Chocolatier and this year Kate and Steve’s Maine Mint Truffle won at the Good Food Awards in San Francisco {it’s a really BIG award!}.
Their company has grown so much in the past few years that they are now in a 4,200 square foot production facility in Westbrook, Maine.
Is this just an amazing story or WHAT?!
I love how when you follow your crazy ideas and dreams… things just seem to work out. Life evolves, and you find where you are suppose to be.
~Mavis
P.S. The chocolate? It’s freakin’ delicious. And the Sea Salt Caramels are hide in a shoebox in the back of your closet so nobody else finds them…AMAZING.
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paige says
I live in Maine!!! I moved here 18 years ago and absolutely love it. Such a beautiful state.
Kristin says
Wow, that looks amazing! Especially when you are in the middle of a Whole30! 🙁 Anyway, do you have any recommendations for a hotel/place to stay in Portland, OR? It would include 4 children, so most Bed and Breakfasts are out! Just wondering if you might have an opinion. Thanks!
Mrs. Chow says
I would totally live in a place like that. Around the time you moved, we moved out to the country on about 40 acres, and 40 minutes from a grocery store. I love it. I have asked my husband to move to Iceland, but he refuses.
Mavis Butterfield says
Oh you just made my day. I never thought of Iceland.
Mrs. Chow says
I love people, but I love living in rural/remote areas even more.
Karin says
I love everything about it except the access only by boat thing. Give me 40 year round residents on the coast of Maine with access by car and it sounds perfect!
Sue R. says
Great story–I love when people find a niche! (And I could totally move to a place like that…)
Lisa Millar says
I came to read about the chocolate (Which was a mouth-watering story) But I am laughing more about your husband. Pretty sure word for word that is exactly the questions and concerns of my husband!!
I am full of the grand plans, optimism and ideas and he is like… yeah, but what if a hurricane/flu/bug infestation blah blah happens?? 🙂
Anyway, so great to hear about a chocolate success story! Inspiring.
Mavis Butterfield says
They are too practical. It’s makes me crazy.
Vivian Blossom says
It’s a small world, Mavis. I have been thinking about the island this week. Linda Greenlaw was a dear friend of a friend of ours, Ed, who had a place on the island. Ed passed away this week and there will be a memorial for him on the island this summer. We never got to the island, but I sure had hoped to get there. I have a copy of Linda’s cookbook and it is a joy to read. Sounds like a heavenly place to me. If we get there, we’ll definitely try the chocolate!
Heather says
Your conversation with your husband sounds like my husband and me, but he is the one that wants to live where there is no internet, etc. I tell him he can move and I will go visit 😉
That said I do like our semi-rural area (1 acre and about 10 minutes to the stores).
erin says
Mavis I just watched alone in the wilderness and I asked my husband if he’d live like that with me… he said he’d get tired of me real quick. After visiting family in Oahu last year I quickly realized that island life isn’t for me. There is only so far a person can drive until you have to circle back around. I’d take a town of 40 on the mainland. I enjoy road trips too much.