06/20/2020
Susan and Jeff are the heart and soul of bean to bar chocolate in Sonoma county! They will wrap up our Father's day session sharing recipes that dad will LOVE! repost
Run a successful restaurant for 16 years in Healdsburg ✔️Sell it to ✔️Move to Baja Sur, Mexico, to work by the beach✔️Fall in love with the intoxicating flavor of Mexican cocao beans and start your own chocolate company? CHECK. Meet chefs and serial entrepreneurs, Jeff and Susan Mall of who truly have an incredible zest for the very best in food and in life -- and sharing it back with the community. .
“Susan and I are both trained chefs who owned Zin Restaurant & Wine Bar in Healdsburg for almost 16 years. We sold Zin at the end of 2014 to Dustin Valette. His restaurant, Valette, is a shining example of how restaurants are pivoting during this tough times. After selling Zin, we moved to El Pescadero, Baja Sur, Mexico to work as chefs at boutique hotel on the beach in the middle of nowhere. While living and working in Mexico, we discovered Mexican Cacao (cocoa beans), and the flavors of real Mexican chocolate. Through trial & error, assisted by our Mexican coworkers, we started making our own chocolate. As chefs, a passion for food has always been central to our lives. Working in Mexico extended the passion to quality cacao & chocolate. After 1 1/2 years of living in Mexico we moved back to Healdsburg and continued to make chocolate. In Latin, Volo means ‘want or desire’, and we felt it was a perfect name for our company," shares Jeff.
The desire to push forth despite the pandemic, isn't lost on Volo and they're appreciative of the community coming together. Not surprisingly, the demand for their chocolate continues to be in high demand. As Jeff observes, "It has been amazing to see our community pull together to support each other. , , and have featured our chocolate in gift baskets and promoted us on social media. There has been a real effort in Healdsburg and the rest of Sonoma County to market & support local producers. We have also seen a huge increase in our online sales.”