The Hot Chocolatier

Wendy and Brandon Buckner started The Hot Chocolatier in 2008 inside the Tennessee Small Business Development Center located along the North Shore area of downtown Chattanooga. Upon moving back to their native hometown of Chattanooga, the couple wanted to introduce the area to experiences they had gathered from various cities where they had lived or visited while either attending school or traveling abroad.

After visiting a number of shops & production facilities in Paris, France, and Belgium as part of a travel study through a MakeWork grant, Wendy and Brandon felt that Chattanooga needed something of an artisan chocolate/gourmet dessert boutique-style shop to call their own. These kinds of shops exist in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and Atlanta; so why not in Chattanooga too?