Cloie H.
Yelp
Yelpers,
Do yourselves a favor and patronize this store. I have rarely come across a place with better customer service and a selection of wares that will cast desire of everything in the place into your heart. And that kind of awesome NEEDS to be rewarded. Here is my story:
About three years ago, my then-boyfriend (now husband) and I were looking for a new apartment, and Belmont just seemed like a town we should be in. We spent a good month of weekends driving to and from open houses and viewing appointments. During the course of that time, we stumbled upon this place. I remember that we were a little bit early to an appointment, and we needed to find parking. We parked right out front of this store and I said we should go in to waste some time before we had to meet the realtor. While we were there, I bought a bottle of wine and a fancy chocolate bar. I cannot recall if the wine was bad, so it must have been to my liking; the chocolate bar, however, was not. It consisted of dark chocolate and sea-salt, a combination that I had enjoyed in the past and thought that I would like in this instance. The packaging also swayed me, as it had a seahorse on it, and I have a heart-on for anything pony. This confection was not in my realm of delicious--quite the contrary--so I gave it to my boy. He thought it was the best damn chocolate bar he had ever put in his mouth.
Cut to about a month ago: My boy and I had moved to Watertown and I was going crazy because our wedding was days away, and my friend that was making the cupcakes needed to go to a bakery. She googled the closest bakery and found Ohlin's Bakery, which is located right next to this place. Upon driving up to Ohlin's, I was very pleasantly surprised to see The Spirited Gourmet. I was equally happy to know how close it was to our new home. Two days after the wedding (which was completely awesome, if you were wondering), I dragged my new husband over to Ohlin's (review of them to follow), pointed out The Spirited Gourmet and asked him if he remembered it. His eyes got really wide and head said something to the effect of "salt chocolate". I took it as a yes and we went inside.
We spent a good 20 minutes avoiding eye contact with the workers and looking for the chocolate. Alas, we came up empty handed, and decided that we needed to partake in human interaction to get our question answered. The woman at the counter took on our inquiry like it was a quest. We explained that it had been a long time ago, we also explained the packaging and what the chocolate bar tasted like, everything we could think of. They didn't have it any more, but she was on it: completely determined to find out what we were talking about. We gave her our information, signed up for their email list, said thank you, and left with a selection of other fine, savory goodies.
Two weeks went by and my husband received a phone call from Rayna. She had found the chocolate bar, ordered it, and said it should be in the store in about a week. A week went by, we moseyed our way down there, and she not only had ordered for us, but replenished her stock for the entire store, in six different varieties. My boy replenished his own stock, very pleasantly surprised. I wanted to thank Rayna, but she wasn't around right then, so we picked up a few more Halloween supplies and skedaddled. Less than a week later, Rayna sent a very thoughtful e-mail informing us that the chocolates were in. My boy was impressed by that level of dedication, and so was I.
Forget the store's inventory (okay, don't forget it--there's also a delicious array of cheeses, sausage, spiffy liquors, and wine wine wine from all over the world), that level of customer service alone is a model for everyone else in the business. Not only did Rayna make us feel like our somewhat trivial request was the MOST important thing, she followed through on honoring it, and, in the process, might just have made us customers for life. She's certainly inspired us to visit more often than every three years. Thank you Rayna, and thank you Spirited Gourmet!
