What comes next? City Bakery's Maury Rubin goes all in on Wonderbon Chocolate Co.
After City Bakery, he's focused on bringing hot chocolate to the masses
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Many of you followed along with City Bakery’s closure last October (financial issues were the cause). It felt like a real loss to the city. Not only was the food was great, but the atmosphere was always very welcoming, a mixture of tourists and New Yorkers of all ages. I still miss having a laid back spot near Union Square to have a post-therapy cookie and do some work.
But the city keeps moving. Maury Rubin, the owner of City Bakery, opened Wonderbon Chocolate Co. in a former Murray’s space in the West Village this month. It’s a pop up that will go through at least April and the launch of a new brand. I got the chance to visit and talk with Rubin about hot chocolate and his plans for the future.
Here’s what he told me:
Wonderbon wants to be on supermarket shelves across the country. Rubin and his business partner Alex Atzberger see a gap in the hot chocolate market. Currently, they offer 32 and 64 oz growlers for takeaway in two sizes, but the shop is also an R&D space for a packaged product. The goal is a summer or fall launch and they’ll be fully geared up by the holiday season.
He’s still a shop guy at heart, “I love being a shopkeeper. Having a retail store, for me, is second nature and always a pleasure.” In many successful restaurants, the owner/chef is nowhere near the kitchen or front of the house. Rubin, in contrast “worked at the store four or five hours a day for 29 years, almost seven days a week.” He’s at Wonderbon every day. It’s really rare to see that and so impressive. Once the shop closes, the company’s time and energy will shift to creating a packaged product.
New York real estate is a mess. Since opening Wonderbon, Rubin has been offered numerous other spaces, “the landlord side of real estate is so thirsty for something that’s quality and special and busy.”
Flavors rotate all the time. There are nine options and three are served each day (check Instagram for details). The best seller is the classic, which Rubin attributes to the Baskin Robbin’s effect, “even with 31 flavors, vanilla is always the most popular.” Some of the flavors were served at City Bakery during Hot Chocolate Month and others are brand new. Other customer favorites include the roasted banana, brown sugar, and the cinnamon (people are always asking about it). Flavors can change throughout the day, “sometimes flavor b becomes flavor l, from just experimenting.” Rubin is thrilled to see that “people are excited about every flavor, there hasn’t been one that’s not popular. There’s not a clunker in the joint yet, it’s a nice embrace.” He enjoys steering people towards flaovrs they haven’t tried, “there’s always a bit of heartbreak of ‘you don’t have x today’, but there’s always a little bit of revelation.”
Some tips for your visit:
Get the smaller size (a shot) with the salted honey whipped cream. There are a few flavors of whipped cream, created to replace the marshmallows at City Bakery, but the salt is the perfect contrast. They also offer chocolate, white chocolate, creme fraiche, and Persian lime whipped creams. If you’re with a friend, try a few to sample the daily flavors. This hot chocolate is thicker than what you likely grew up with, but it’s not overwhelmingly sweet and the flavors shine through.
Don’t overlook the white chocolate flavors. It’s not remotely chalky and really goes well with the milk. A white chocolate cinnaon fig flavor was one of my favorites.
A dairy-free option will be part of the packaged line and is occasionally available at the shop. It’s something Rubin is working on, figuring out the right blend of oat, coconut, and almond milk to use as the base (he wants to phase out the almond milk for environmental reasons). So far, he’s impressed with how the nondairy white chocolate flavors are turning out and the tweaking will continue. He’s creating things that are brand new from a hot chocolate like, “white chocolate with coriander and cinnamon and coconut chai” and is “excited to be discovering that side of the aisle—it’s a gigantic creative opportunity.”
Try hot chocolate for happy hour. There are options with mezcal, whiskey, and rum and Rubin sees a large crowd every day after five (it’s the largest chunk of his business). Happy hour is “a whole new territory. I started doing bourbon hot chocolate back in 1992, so spiking drinks is not new for me at all.” It’s new to be “doing it as a mini concert, where you get a couple of them togehter. We’re doing a flight.” The milk chocolate with rye whiskey and cardamum is the “newest and most delicious.”
Personally, it felt a little strange to see Rubin in a different environment, without the pretzel croissants and cookies. He can’t discuss what happened at City Bakery because of ongoing legal issues, but he and the manager both said they see a lot of “City Bakery refugees.” Rubin wasted no time between projects and seems really excited about what he’s working on, which is great to see. He loves getting to know customers and seeing people try new things. The next phase of development will include travel to find production facilities and a whole different set of challenges as they bring a packaged hot chocolate to market. I’ll certainly be following along (and still wish I could visit City Bakery one more time).