William Dean Chocolates to open a cafe in Midtown Tampa later this year

By Louis Llovio | Commercial Real Estate Editor

TAMPA — Who says you can have too much chocolate?

Belleair Bluffs-based William Dean Chocolates is opening a second location, this one a café in the Midtown Tampa development.

Construction has already begun on the 1,400-square-foot café and when complete it will offer the company’s artisan chocolates as well breakfast and lunch options and coffee and tea service. The space will include a bakery counter, indoor seating for up to 14 people and shared patio space that will be able to seat up to 40, according to a statement from Summit Design + Build, the Tampa-based general contractor.

Bill Brown, chief chocolate officer at William Dean, says in an email that the new shop is expected to open in late November or early December. The bakery, he says, will carry croissants, breakfast pastries, cakes, eclairs, pastries, quiche, sandwiches and salads but “the timing of the opening of the new store will impact how many of the new products we are able to have when we open.”

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