Scott Witherow – East Nashville’s Chocolate Artisan
This is an article I wrote for the January 2011 edition of The East Nashvillian magazine.
When local entrepreneur Scott Witherow gets an idea in his head, there is no stopping him. He opened Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Co. in Riverside Village last summer after discovering a bean-to-bar chocolate maker on a trip to Canada in 2007. While there, he bought over a pound of the chocolate bars and could not stop eating them. He ended up devouring the whole pound in one night. Scott was hooked, and with a little research found that nobody in Tennessee was producing bean-to-bar chocolate on a commercial level. Thus Olive & Sinclair was born, and over the last couple of years has been perfected.
Carried in Whole Foods and many local shops throughout the city, Olive & Sinclair is quickly making a splash with their Southern Artisan Chocolate™. The bars come from stone-ground fair-trade cacao beans and all natural ingredients. “The stone grinding process is similar to making grits,” says Scott “I wanted to focus on what we think of as the Southern experience, we use brown sugar which gives it molasses-like tones. It’s unconventional; we were the first of our kind in Tennessee and remain one of the few in the Southeast.”
Jennifer Hagan-Dier, East Nashville resident and President of the Friends of the Nashville Farmers’ Market is a big fan, “Olive and Sinclair has completely changed what I think about chocolate,” she says, “One square of Olive and Sinclair’s Salt & Pepper Chocolate has become a serious daily habit – my favorite way to end a long day. The fact that it is also made by local folks who care about the ingredients and every dollar I spend purchasing their chocolate from a local merchant goes back into our local economy makes it even easier to purchase another bar when my stash runs out. ”
Scott was not new to the food industry when he launched his company. He grew up in Columbia, TN and has worked in restaurants since the age of fifteen. But like his revelation to make chocolate, several years ago he had another revelation that lead him to where he is today. “One day I started really considering going to culinary school and decided to go to London,” says Scott. He left town that same week and later graduated from the Le Cordon Bleu culinary program. He worked at The Fat Duck and Nobu before heading back to the states. He spent time in Chicago and Birmingham, and has worked in Nashville at Firefly Grille, The Trace and Wild Boar. It was during his time as pastry chef at F. Scott’s that he started thinking seriously about opening his own restaurant or other culinary endeavor. Then on that fated trip to Canada, he discovered bean-to-bar chocolate.
While teaching at the Art Institute, Scott perfected his chocolate making. In serious need of space for equipment, he looked around and found the perfect spot in Riverside Village. Scott says, “I knew from previously living on Gartland Avenue that East Nashville would be accepting and supportive. It was such a perfect fit for my business and working with [developer of Riverside Village] Dan Heller on the space has been a win-win. He is such an advocate for my business and East Nashville and he brings people by whenever he shows another part of the building. It’s such a community here. We all support each other and local business in general.”
Dan Heller only has praise for Scott as well. “I love talking about Olive & Sinclair. What a great brand! Scott made a brilliant executive decision in choosing Anderson Design Group to create their visual identity. It’s as if they’ve been on grocery shelves since the turn of the century. The chocolate is just beyond amazing and truly unique. They’ve been getting a lot of well-deserved attention.”
East Nashville was essential in getting the business off the ground in another major way. In the summer of 2009, there was a buzz about Olive & Sinclair and Scott chose to highlight his business with a booth at the Tomato Art Fest. The reception was way beyond expected. “It was flooring how well received we were”, Scott says, I chose to give away pieces of the Salt & Pepper bar and everything was affirmation that the business was going to be good. We gave chocolate away all day long, wanting to see people’s reactions and it was incredible. I had never done anything like it and it was phenomenal.”
His team is small. Scott has three employees and an intern from the Arts Institute. They all do everything, from roasting to winnowing to stone grinding to molding to cooling to packaging. Multi-tasking is a must at the shop, they make two or three batches a week each weighing 330 pounds which makes upwards of 800+ bars a day! Scott wants the whole process to be as transparent as possible. He asks his employees’ input on everything, from the taste of the product right down to the packaging.
The shop, next to Bagel Face Bakery and behind Mitchell’s Deli, has some hours available for retail but the small team and loud equipment makes it difficult to have regular hours for visitors. For right now, Scott says the best thing to do is get the bars at local retailers like Bongo Java, the Turnip Truck, Marche, Mitchell’s Deli or the Green Wagon. Ordering online is another great way to get their seven different chocolate bars as well as hip t-shirts and colorful collectible posters with the incredible Olive & Sinclair logo designed by The Anderson Design Group. Scott would like to expand their hours for the public and offer tours of the shop. Eventually he envisions the space to be friendlier to the public in general. He would like it to be a venue, like Yazoo Brewery has evolved into, with parties, live music, and “maybe chocolate mud-wrestling”.
The space of the shop may evolve, but what about the product? Scott is already working on that. “I love to find ways to bridge the relationships with local companies”, he says. He uses Bongo Java Roasting Co.’s coffee beans in the Coffee Bar and is also working with Bongo’s Bob Bernstein on a drinking chocolate for Bob’s new place Hot & Cold in Hillsboro Village.
“I’ve wanted to serve a chocolate sipping drink for a long time but until I worked with Scott, I couldn’t get the drink right,” says Bernstein. “The chocolate shot we are now serving at Hot & Cold is incredible. It’s the chocolate equivalent of espresso: one ounce of pure flavor is all you want”. They are also dipping paletas into melted Olive & Sinclair chocolate.
Terrapin Beer Co. of Athens Georgia is using Olive & Sinclair chocolate in its “Moo-Hoo” Chocolate Milk Stout, which is currently on tap at 3 Crow Bar. Scott is also working on a baking chocolate and ideas for corporate gifts. He would like to continue making strides toward making his business more sustainable and ecologically stable. His goal is to make chocolate with 100% green power. Right now Olive & Sinclair works directly with farmers in the Dominican Republic to get beans and cocoa butter that are 100% certified organic.
Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Co. has had a lot of good press, which has largely come from word of mouth. There is no PR person, just Scott and his team. “It’s a quality product that’s as personable as it is Southern. I believe in making that quality product that sells itself,” Scott says. They have been featured in print in the Southern Living 2010 Gift Guide, The Food Network Magazine, People Magazine, New York magazine, Food and Wine Magazine, Specialty Food magazine, Nashville Arts, The Tennessean, and The Nashville Scene. Awards and honors are starting as well. The Sea Salt Chocolate bar is a finalist in the Good Food Awards. The Salt & Pepper Chocolate Bar was a 2010 Silver Finalist for Outstanding Confection by The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade. Even the original artwork and packaging is winning awards. The Anderson Design Group won a Gold Award for Package Design in 2010 in the AIGA Tenn Art Show and Best of Show in the 2010 AAF Addy Awards. Tennessee Crossroads featured Olive & Sinclair on their show. When Gwyneth Paltrow was in town shooting her movie Country Strong, she raved about Olive & Sinclair on her blog. It seems like everyone is talking about Olive & Sinclair.
The chocolate bars are $5-6 and available all over town and online (www.oliveandsinclair.com). Turnip Truck had four varieties in stock when I stopped by. If you are looking for an excellent Valentine’s Day gift, an Olive & Sinclair variety pack might be just the thing. Oh and maybe a six-pack of Terrapin’s Moo-Hoo Chocolate Milk Stout.
