Artisan Chocolatier Tim Gearhart has been spicing up life in Charlottesville with his chocolates since he and Bill Hamilton opened up their shop—Gearharts Fine Chocolates—in 2001. “It was a perfect storm,” Gearhart said of the shop’s opening.
Before finding his current niche in Charlottesville, Gearhart explored his interest in food and sweets in many different ways. As a high school student in nearby Crozet, Gearhart began to get involved in food as a bus boy and hand at Duner’s Restaurant. He then decided to enlist in the Marine Corps as a cook for the four years that followed, during which time he learned all of the basics of cooking.
In the early ‘90s, Gearhart was stationed in California after finishing his time with the Marine Corp. “I still enjoyed cooking and wanted to up my game,” he said. “But there were only a few culinary schools at that time.”
He soon found himself at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, where a pastry program had just been started about a year earlier. Having completed the one-year program in the second graduating class, Gearhart left New York to return closer to home—Keswick, Virginia. For the next year and a half, Gearhart held an externship at the newly opened Keswick Hall.
It was during his time at Keswick that Gearhart forged his friendship with his present-day business partner Bill Hamilton, the owner of Hamiltons’ at First and Main.
“We talked about opening a chocolate shop in Charlottesville, but the timing just wasn’t right in the mid-‘90s,” Gearhart said.
But they kept in touch as Gearhart left Keswick to work as a pastry chef at a castle in England, a dude ranch in Wyoming, a hotel in Boston, and everywhere in between.
Around 2000, Gearhart had clearly chosen pastry as his path in cooking, with a special interest in chocolate, and had done his time working for other people. So he got in touch with Hamilton and “the perfect storm” hit.
Now, Gearhart can be found in the kitchen above the shop on West Main Street making thousands upon thousands of chocolates each day. During the peak season—from Thanksgiving to New Years—Gearhart and his staff make a whopping seven to eight thousand pieces a day.
“It’s challenging to make them look and taste the same all the time,” he said. “But I have it down to a science.”
With a smile, Gearhart then noted that making chocolate is not as whimsical or dreamlike as people would like to think. “But there are very few people who do what I do. I’m very fortunate,” he said.
Gearhart also said that their business has been fortunate to see some growth, including a new Gearharts Fine Chocolates shop in West End Richmond and about 20-30 retail shops in and outside of Charlottesville selling the bars, nuts, and toffees.
“It has been a challenge, as a small business, to grow as a business and stay true to what you do,” he said.
And Gearhart certainly has given the people of Charlottesville something different. His hand-made chocolates infused with ingredients such as Earl Gray tea, fresh mint, and Ancho chili and orange, just to name a few, have given Charlottesville a whole new sense of local flavor.
“Charlottesville really takes food seriously and really loves the local guy,” Gearhart said, adding, “We’ve been fortunate to be a part of that.”
Fortunately for chocolate-loving foodies in and around Charlottesville, Gearhart and his fine chocolates are here to stay. “Our business is continually growing. We’re doing fine,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere.”
1. Duner’s
2. Hamiltons
3. Petit Pois
4. Zocalo
5. C&O
6. Fleurie
7. Continental Divide
8. Bizou
9. Zynodoa
10. Downtown Grille