Ellen Byrne Co-Owner and Chocolatier Byrne & Carlson Chocolatier From rich, buttery truffles to chunky caramel turtles you can sink your teeth into, Ellen Byrne creates chocolates using a combination of European and American-style craftsmanship. Everything that comes out of her kitchen is handmade in small batches using superior ingredients, and it all sells fast. Instead of bagging groceries or waitressing during high school, Byrne spent her after-school hours making chocolate. She’s been nurturing her confectionary creativity ever since. After studying fine art in college, Byrne shifted her artistic energy into chocolate making. She attended L’École Lenôtre outside Paris and then landed an apprenticeship at Bernachon, the prestigious chocolatier in Lyon, France. Byrne and Carlson has been an institution in downtown Portsmouth since 1999, the year Byrne and her husband/business partner Christopher Carlson set up shop. They dispatch wholesale orders to specialty stores nationwide from their production kitchen in Kittery, Maine. Byrne and Carlson has a fiercely loyal customer base, including one young man who pops in when he’s home from college. This particular fan started sampling Byrne’s chocolates as a toddler when his parents came in to buy holiday gifts. Byrne’s process is thoughtful, but her work is brisk. She cranks out countless handcrafted chocolates every week. And while her chocolates are superior, her manner is decidedly unpretentious. Byrne creates chocolates that are at once multidimensional and simple, refined and spirited and so enchanting that they may appear in her most devoted customers’ dreams.
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thesquarenh.com
Fall/Winter 2016