Hope & Main - Warren

HOPE & MAIN

WARREN

By Brian J. Lowney

If you haven’t yet visited the farmers market at Hope & Main in this bucolic coastal seaside community, you are certainly in store for a delicious treat.

While the weekly selections vary, shoppers will find an assortment of fresh pasta, sauces and condiments, bakery products, candy, ethnic cuisine, entrees, and so much more, every week. That’s why travelers from all over the East Bay and beyond, as well as the the south coast of Massachusetts continue to make Hope & Main an exciting and premiere shopping destination.

One of the newest and truly most innovative entrepreneurs at the market is Miguel Allis, a native of Mexico City, Mexico, a chocolatier whose confections continue to win rave reviews from appreciative fans.

“I believe food should be more than just good flavors,” begins Allis, who earned a culinary degree in Mexico and later worked in Orlando, Florida, and then in Seoul, South Korea.

“It should be an experience,” he continues. “Some of the fondest memories I have growing up and later in my adult life are food related, whether it was back home over dinner with my family, cooking at home with my mom and grandma, hosting a dinner party, or on a trip somewhere with my partner and friends. Food is always part of those memories because it brings people together.”

After moving to Boston several years ago, Allis started working at Flour Bakery, under the tutelage of renowned chef and baker Joanne Chang.

“I started as a cookie baker and was later promoted to head baker,” he says. “Joanne is smart, creative, and really cares about her staff. I honestly loved my job and learned so much about baking and managing.

“However, it was time to move on and take my career to the next level,” he tells.”I had been introduced to high quality chocolate in culinary school, and while I was exploring other options, I started to experiment with chocolate.”

After living in Boston for a few years, he and his partner decided to move to Providence for a change, where a friend introduced him to Hope & Main in Warren. Working in the kitchen at the popular facility, the entrepreneur creates a delightful assortment of artisanal bonbons and chocolate bars.

Allis explains that his innovative company, “Hawt Chocolate,” originated out of his need to share his great love of chocolate with others and to create these comforting experiences for people from all walks of life, while simultaneously expressing his own creativity and the one thing that he is most passionate about - food!

“The word ‘Hawt’ began as an acronym for ‘having a wonderful time,’ and nowadays, people frequently use the word to describe something that is attractive (hot),” the entrepreneur emphasizes.

“Here at ‘Hawt Chocolate,’ I strive for both. I am having a wonderful time, while offering amazing food and confections to customers by presenting a product that is not only enticing to the eye, but is also rustically crafted with high quality ingredients and great flavors.” Some of the most popular flavors are the salted caramel bonbon, in a rich dark chocolate shell, PB&J bonbons, made with milk chocolate, and peanut butter ganache with toasted peanuts and berry pâte de fruit. One of the newest chocolates in the market is Ruby chocolate, a naturally pink colored chocolate with fresh berry notes. Allis uses this for his strawberries and cream bonbon, made with vanilla bean ganache, strawberry pâte de fruit, in a Ruby chocolate shell, the perfect pairing for sweet and tart berry lovers.

Allis shares that he plans to expand his business to additional farmers markets and to eventually create a retail store.

To learn more about this innovative artisanal confectioner, visit the web site: www.hawtchocolatepvd.com

Another energetic entrepreneur worth discovering at Hope & Main is “W’s Mobile Wood-Fired Pizza Oven,” owned and founded by William Fritz, who works in collaboration with Patrick Hodge, head of marketing and sales. Fritz, a graduate of Johnson and Wales, with degrees in culinary arts and food service management, recalls that he was working as a fence builder and discovered that the company owner had a wood-fired oven that was “just collecting dust.”

That discovery ‘ignited a fire’ within him and led to the birth of the new pizza company.

Now in its third season, the fixed-price artisan pizza company, whose delicious pizzas offer customers an array of toppings that include pepperoni, sausage, steak, prosciutto, meatballs, black olives, and pineapple.

“Our signature pizza features fig, arugula, goat cheese, and honey,” Fritz reveals, adding that another unique and delicious choices are the chicken bacon ranch pizza, as well as the chourico-clam pizza.

The pizzas are sold at Hope & Main, farmers markets throughout the Ocean State, local breweries, and at private events.

“We travel throughout Rhode Island, parts of Connecticut, and into Southeastern Massachusetts,” the entrepreneur shares, adding that event offerings include pizza bites, homemade chocolate chip cookies, baked stuffed clams, chicken wings, and more.

For more information, visit the web site: www.wswoodfiredpizza.com