Changing Hands and Lands

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Fortunately, Ponitz had ready buyers on hand: staffer Jacob Smith and his buddy Aaron McRae. They'd wanted to buy the business earlier and were thrilled to get a second chance.

The first thing the new owners did was undo many of Molnar's innovations, including the name change. They've also brought back some longtime customer favorites, including English toffee, dark chocolate-covered malt balls, and the shop's famous chocolate layer cake.

They're keeping some of Molnar's changes, too: buying top-quality coffee beans and roasting them in-house and making truffles by hand. "We're taking kind of the best of Carillon Chocolates and the best of the Chocolate House and putting them together," Smith says.