A Village Chocolate Tale

A Village Chocolate Tale

An iconic West Village business that dates to 1923–– Li-Lac Chocolates –– hosted “A Chocolate Celebration” on December 3 to honor Martha Bond, who owned the business for three decades before recently retiring to Mississippi.

The afternoon chocolate and wine-tasting at the company’s flagship store at Jane Street and Eighth Avenue featured a proclamation honoring Li-Lac and Bond issued by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Bond began working at the company in 1978 when her brother Edward bought it, and succeeded him as owner at the time of his death in 1990.

The new owners are Anthony Cirone, formerly a marketing executive at Unilever and Bath & Body Works, and Anwar Khoder, a Lebanese immigrant who joined Li-Lac in 1990 as a student and is now chief chocolatier.