Dude, Sweet Chocolate

Where to Get the Viral Dubai Chocolate Bar in Dallas | Eater Dallas

"Amid the viral “Dubai” chocolate bar trend, the Bishop Arts shop’s owner and chocolatier Katherine Clapner set out to make a higher-quality version rather than another cheap-looking knockoff. Her bar features a hard chocolate shell that cracks open to a vibrant pistachio butter center made with agave, salt, and sweetened condensed milk; it’s intentionally a bit textured because it’s produced by hand rather than in an industrial grinder. To add crunch and Middle Eastern character, she incorporates toasted kataifi (a shredded phyllo-like pastry) mixed with pistachios and butter. Because the chocolate is fragile, the bars are cast in larger shapes to hold the filling, hand-packed in a protective plastic sheet and a small padded box tied with twine, and produced in limited runs of about 100 so new batches are only poured when the previous ones sell out. The entire prep and packaging process takes seven days, so the item is treated as a short-run, attention-driven offering rather than a permanent menu staple." - Courtney E. Smith

New Bar Wiggle Room Opens in Downtown Austin | Eater Austin

"Dallas-based chocolate shop Dude, Sweet Chocolate is mentioned because co-founder Katherine Clapner is one of the partners who now own the restaurant group behind Wiggle Room." - Erin Russell

The Eater Dallas Holiday Gift Guide for 2022 | Eater Dallas

"I’d ship treats from Katherine Clapner’s Bishop Arts chocolate shop—Dude, Sweet Chocolate offers the Crack in a Box chocolate bark made from 72 percent South American dark chocolate chunked with candied hazelnut, almonds, macadamia, and cocoa nibs, and the shop also provides several nut-free options for folks with allergies." - Courtney E. Smith

"Born of an idea hatched in a Dallas dive bar, this brand has grown from a one-woman artisan chocolate outfit (with sweets made for private clients and peddled at farmers' markets) into a small kitchen/storefront in the Bishop Arts District to, now, four shops, several retail outlets (including Whole Foods), and dessert-consulting gigs with major restaurant chains. The success can be attributed to co-founder/noted pastry chef Katherine Clapner’s dedication to quality, and to her commitment to keeping it simple:Without bows, ribbons, or showy packaging, the chocolate speaks for itself. And then there are the flavors, from sweet-and-savory mixes like blue cheese and sea-salt fudge and porcini mushroom and pumpkin-seed toffee, to creamy truffles made with 12-year-old Macallan whiskey and sloe gin, dark chocolate bark with fruits and fenugreek, Valrhona-covered marshmallow puffs, rich hot chocolates, and much more. The staff is happy to let you sample away."

"Born of an idea hatched in a Dallas dive bar, this brand has grown from a one-woman artisan chocolate outfit (with sweets made for private clients and peddled at farmers' markets) into a small kitchen/storefront in the Bishop Arts District to, now, four shops, several retail outlets (including Whole Foods), and dessert-consulting gigs with major restaurant chains. The success can be attributed to co-founder/noted pastry chef Katherine Clapner’s dedication to quality, and to her commitment to keeping it simple:Without bows, ribbons, or showy packaging, the chocolate speaks for itself. And then there are the flavors, from sweet-and-savory mixes like blue cheese and sea-salt fudge and porcini mushroom and pumpkin-seed toffee, to creamy truffles made with 12-year-old Macallan whiskey and sloe gin, dark chocolate bark with fruits and fenugreek, Valrhona-covered marshmallow puffs, rich hot chocolates, and much more. The staff is happy to let you sample away."