sweetriot blog - cacao | culture | cool!

Formaggio Kitchen, a special place

Nestled in an old brick building on Huron Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of the loveliest and most loving specialty stores I know.  This was our very first store in Boston, and we hold it near and dear to our hearts. 

Formaggio Kitchen has the most amazing selection of cheese we have ever seen and has daily sampling for all to enjoy.  As soon as you enter the door, there is a sense of feeling welcome and the standards for all of their products are extremely high.  Walking from room to room you are exposed to everything from cheese to spices to fresh flowers.

After our Friday Boston Riot, we couldn't resist stopping by Formaggio for a Saturday demo.  The Formaggio customers loved sweetriot and tended to buy an entire set every time they would stop to speak with us.  Heidi and I couldn't stop mixing our cacao and cheese while demo'ing there.  Special thanks go to Christine who brought us into the store and who has been a huge sweetriot advocate.  Thank you also to Robert and Ross for making us feel so welcome on Saturday. 

Boston is starting to riot!

This weekend we hosted a riot in Boston at Vox with an awesome group of revellers.  Some of my old friends from grad school stopped by and some new ones too!  The Friday night riot continued on even after the party with a stop at Saint.

The Boston riot was completely different than the San Francisco one, which is not surprising.  The cities are very different, and they took on the personalities of their own home towns.  San Francisco was a bit more liberal and artistic while Boston was more intellectual.  rioters were VERY inquisitive about cacao and the founding of sweetriot – a great sign of a university and education focused town! Over 200 rioters stopped by to show their support and to munch on some yummy cacao.

Huge thanks goes out to the host team including Faraz and Jim plus Alex, Moe, Suzanne, Greg, Alan, Christine, Margaret, Justin, Jayee, and Puneet for hosting a great night for all.  Special  plug also for Jim Solomon's restaurant, The Fireplace , one of the finest places in Boston.  Jim has been a huge friend and support of sweetriot from the very beginning. 

Reflections on the Sundance Film Festival

I’ve been home from Sundance 6 days now. In reflection, it was an amazing experience to spread sweetriot joy through out the festival with a great team of friends and cacao lovers.  HUGE thanks to Joe, Joe, Kim, Matt, Connor, Teresa, Farouk, Kristina and Ryan who all contributed.

At the same time, our experience was ironic.  Everywhere sweetriot went we were stopped from our ‘rioting’ activities.  We had cacao in martini glasses on Main St and were told to stop.  We had signs on Main St and were told we could not have them.  We danced with Naploeon all over the main movie theaters and were told to leave. 

We heard over and over, “you are not official sponsors.”   As a small and independent company who supports independent film, it was interesting not to have an official place at Sundance.  The closest to official we came were our homes at the Alpine Café, The GenArt My Space party, The Yahoo! Music Café, and The Queer Lounge – for them we are grateful. 

However, the rest of Main Street was full of corporate lounges from Airborne, Intel, Frigadaire, and more.   For the team this was always a discussion point.  Should companies who are not affiliated with the artistic or independent film community be there?  Does flu medicine belong at Sundance?  Does Intel belong at Sundance?  Should Main St art galleries and little shops shut down and leave during Sundance to turn their spaces into a corporate center?

As a 5 year attendee of Sundance, I hope its values stay in tact and that Main St retains some of its original Park City character.  I also hope next year there will be a clearer place for a small independent company called sweetriot.  It’s tiring being shut down every where you go – and even though our ‘signs’ are about a protest for a better world with real cacao for everyone, the signs always seem to make people think we are protestors looking to cause trouble.  Everyone deserves a voice in this world and the voice of optimism and joy from sweetriot needs to be heard just as the voices of all other activists around the world.

Outsider Art Fair!

While part of the team was at the Sundance Film Festival, Megan, Dave, Liz, and Nina led the rioters at the Outsider Art Fair in Manhattan.  This art fair is just up our alley as they are profiling emerging artists just as sweetriot does on our tins.  The Art Fair was noted to be devoted exclusively to "outsider, art brut, primitive, visionary and intuitive art."

In our commitment to uniqueness and independence, we had sweetriot cacao standing by for the art seekers.   With our new art from Featured Artist #2, Jelene, shining through, curious attendees purchased the artful cacao for snacking during and after the exhibition.