Chocolate and wine: Food business edition

Checking around the food world:

First there was the Wine Shop, a great store on Park Road that opened in 1985, the year I moved to Charlotte. When I started learning about wine, that was the place for personalized advice from mighty wine dealer Frank Redd. The shop moved around, sticking close to Dilworth. Then a second location opened in the SouthPark area, so there was The Wine Shop Dilworth, 2442 Park Road, and the Wine Shop on Foxcroft, 7824 Fairview Road. More changes, more years. The stores split apart, and the Foxcroft store added food, a nice lineup of small plates to go with wines by the glass. Now it has a new name: The Foxcroft Wine Co. One thing has never changed, though: They're both great places to ask about wine, buy wine and learn wine.

The Secret Chocolatier is also a business that has had a long trip to a great destination: The Dietz/Ciordia families started selling chocolates at local farmer's markets and providing desserts at farm-to-fork dinners before opening a shop at 2935 Providence Road, near Sharon Amity. This summer, they opened a second store, at Ballantyne Commons Road, 11318 N. Community House Road. Now, the latest news: They won six awards from the TasteTV International Chocolate Salon. In the Best White Chocolate category, Cardomom Crunch Bark won gold for best ingredient combination, silver for most unique and bronze for best white chocolate. In the Top Artisan Toffee category, the sea salt butter toffee won bronze for best ingredient combination and best taste, while white chocolate honey toffee won bronze for best texture. Congratulations, Bill et al.