Inaugural L.A. Chocolate Festival Opens This Weekend at The Magic Box
Brian Cisneros brings his Seattle craft-chocolate festival to The Reef on Broadway for two days of tastings and workshops Nov. 7-8.
Los Angeles gets its first dedicated craft-chocolate festival this weekend, a two-day tasting and education event at The Magic Box @ The Reef in downtown that organizers hope will help Angelenos cut through the growing maze of bean-to-bar labels. The L.A. Chocolate Festival runs Saturday, Nov. 7, and Sunday, Nov. 8, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 1933 S. Broadway.
LAist reported Thursday that festival director Brian Cisneros sees the show as more than a sugar rush. He wants visitors to learn how to read labels, taste properly and meet the people behind the bars — so the next time they face a wall of $8 to $12 craft chocolate at a specialty shop or supermarket, they can decide what is worth the money and what makes a gift.
“You've had some practice, you've met some chocolate makers,” Cisneros told LAist. “And now you're able to evaluate, ‘Oh, that was worth the $8,’ or, ‘That was so good, I'm going to get that as a gift.’”
From Seattle's Northwest Festival to a Homecoming in L.A.
Cisneros has spent 18 years building the Northwest Chocolate Festival in Seattle, which he founded when only about six craft or bean-to-bar makers operated in the United States. That show now draws more than 100 exhibitors from around the world. He told LAist he launched it after learning about trade and manufacturing practices in industrial chocolate and wanting to connect people with more ethical supply chains.
The Los Angeles edition is deliberately smaller. LAist described a boutique of around 30 exhibitors; the festival’s own site advertises more than 40 makers and a dozen workshops across the two days, with dark, milk and vegan chocolate plus drinks, pastries and desserts. Named makers in the LAist preview include Northern California’s Dick Taylor and Las Vegas vegan maker Melissa Coppel. Educational workshops are included with a day pass.
For Cisneros, the expansion also carries a personal note. He grew up in Bellflower, with a grandmother in East Los Angeles, before moving to Seattle for high school. “So there is a little bit of a homecoming energy for me personally,” he told LAist, “though I try to keep that internal.”
How to Work the Floor
LAist’s guide, and Cisneros’ advice in it, stresses pacing. Do not eat the first sample you see; walk the floor first, then return to booths that caught your eye. Drink water between tastes, take a savory lunch break outside the tasting hall to reset your palate, sit through a 30-minute workshop, and set a buying budget before the FOMO sets in. Everything from pastry to ceremonial cacao is on offer, so the risk of a sugar crash is real.
On Friday’s AirTalk, host Austin Cross also previewed the weekend with Cisneros and Kala Maxym, chief chocolate officer at the Chocolate Dispensary in Echo Park, framing the festival as a chance for local artisans and curious eaters to meet over cacao.
Tickets, Venue and Weekend Context
According to LAist and the festival site, weekend passes are $65 for adults and $15 for under-18 guests; Saturday or Sunday day passes are $45, or $35 after 11 a.m. Paid parking is available on site at The Magic Box @ The Reef, an industrial-chic event space in the Arts District / South Broadway corridor that the festival pitches for natural light and flexible layout.
Discover Los Angeles listed a crowded cultural weekend around the same dates — from Daniel Harding with the L.A. Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall to Corita Day at SCI-Arc and Self Help Graphics’ Día de los Muertos celebration — but the chocolate festival fills a gap the city’s event calendars have not long offered: a focused, ticketed deep dive into craft cacao rather than a single booth at a larger food fair.
For Angelenos who have watched specialty chocolate explode on grocery shelves and Instagram feeds, the Magic Box this weekend is the first local chance to taste side by side, ask makers about origin and process, and leave with a short list of bars that actually match their palate — not just the prettiest wrapper.
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