Jan NorrisThe shop and chocolate factory on Lake Worth Road welcomed tourists and families for decades
After more than four decades, Hoffman’s Chocolates closed its shop Friday on Lake Worth Road in Greenacres.
“They sold the property to Saito Facility three years ago,” said Kip Hunter, Hoffman’s spokesperson. “The new owners have plans for the property,” she said, and they don’t include the beloved chocolate factory and shop.
Five other Hoffman’s Chocolates stores remain open, including three in Palm Beach County, she said.
Hoffman’s began in 1975 as a tiny shop in downtown Lake Worth Beach, created by Paul Hoffman, an engineer. He moved it to the Greenacres location and expanded it to a factory where the public could watch the chocolates being made. It soon became a tourist destination.
It remained in the family until 2013, when it was sold to BBX Capital Corp. BBX took the corporate brand under its Las Olas Confections.
Hunter said for the last two years, the company’s chocolates have been made in Orlando by Las Olas Confections.
County records show Saito Facility LLC, paid $2.95 million in March 2022 for the Hoffman’s Greenacres property at 5190 Lake Worth Road. The LLC lists the same Fort Lauderdale mailing address in corporate records as Saito’s Japanese Steakhouse.
The flagship shop’s closing came as a shock to many in the area, who remember making a special trip to the shop at the holidays, watching through the window as factory workers made chocolate Santas or Easter bunnies.
The owners put on an elaborate Christmas light and music display, Hoffman’s Winter Wonderland, in the lush garden next to the Swiss-chalet-style building, with kid-friendly activities — and free hot chocolate.
The news of the closing reached former Palm Beach County residents who grew up visiting the chocolate shop.
“This breaks my heart,” said Kathleen Purvis, who grew up with her family in West Palm Beach and now lives in Belmont, N.C. “My father loved that shop. He loved to take my son there when he was little. It was a kind of kids’ dreamland. We’d go to see the Christmas lights; it used to be quite an event.
“After my father died, I went to Hoffman’s to buy chocolates for all the nurses who took care of him in the ICU. I thought it was very appropriate.”
Donna Kelly, a former West Palm Beach resident now living in Daytona Beach Shores, remembers the sensory appeal of the shop.
“I especially loved the dark chocolates, and my mouth watered as I looked at the candies available. The staff was always patient with me as I lingered and enjoyed the sweet aroma of chocolate everywhere.”
Kelly and her husband Tom made the trek to the shop annually with their son to see the Christmas displays. “It was mesmerizing.”
Gifts from the shop in their signature brown boxes were always popular at the holidays. “We’d buy boxes of candy, and stuffed animals. They had them for all occasions. I miss that kind of special treat.”
Cheryl Hatcher, a longtime resident who lived near the shop in Lake Worth, was a frequent shopper.
“They were right around the corner from our house. For years and years, I’d buy the girls’ Easter basket candy there,” she said from her current home in Franklin, N.C.
She recalls the first Hoffman shop in downtown Lake Worth. ‘It was a small shop on Lake Avenue,” she said. “We’d pick out a few pieces, and eat one on the way home and save some for later,” she said. “The girls loved their chocolate-covered pretzels, and at certain times of the year, they’d have chocolate-covered strawberries.”
Once her children grew up and moved away, she’d still “for fun” buy boxes of the pretzels, one of the most popular products at the shop, and mail them to them in Nashville or Blairsville, Ga.
Hoffman’s is known for producing more than 70 specialty chocolates, including elaborate holiday boxes, panoramic Easter eggs hand decorated with the children’s names, and enormous Easter baskets, cited by national food magazines as among the tops in the country.
They produce candies for restricted diets, such as sugar-free or nut-free, and a certified kosher line of confections.
Hoffman’s Chocolates shops are open in Palm Beach Gardens, Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Plantation and Las Olas Boulevard in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story had the incorrect location where Hoffman’s chocolates were made for the last two years.
Jan’s a journalist covering the South Florida dining scene for 30-plus years. (She knows where the bones and onion peels are buried.) She’s a Florida native, remembers the state pre-Disney, and travels frequently to visit family and friends from the Keys to the Panhandle.
