Birley Chocolate has opened in Chelsea to offer Londoners a chance to discover the delicious diversity of the highest quality cacao, in gorgeous surroundings. Located amid an enclave of gourmet food stores on Cale Street, it joins Birley Bakery, which opened in 2023 (and made an impression with its homage to the Magnum ice cream last summer).
The new shop is a jewel box of delights, with exquisite chocolate creations offered alongside exceptional bread and pastries, ice creams and sorbets. The interior, conceived by Notting-Hill based JR Design, conjures up the opulent, colourful Birley world. Crimson walls are adorned with murals hand-painted by artist Lizzi Porter; they depict fantastical birds, trees and flowers in a style inspired by the motifs of 19th-century Japonisme. Glowing lanterns, cane seating and flourishes of gold add to the exotic mood of the space.
Inside Birley Chocolate shop
Birley Chocolate is a partnership between Robin Birley, the club owner behind 5 Hertford Street and Oswald’s, and his executive pastry chef Vincent Zanardi, with whom he has worked closely since 2012. Excellent chocolate has always been a feature of Birley establishments, and this latest venture brings to fruition Robin and Zanardi’s long-held vision of a dedicated shop.
The chocolates are made using the finest ingredients, carefully sourced from Zanardi’s long-standing suppliers in all corners of the globe: there’s vanilla from Tahiti, coconut from Sri Lanka, and Piedmontese hazelnuts and Valencian almonds used to make the pralines.
Zanardi and his team drew inspiration from the ‘mendiant’, a classic French confection composed of a thin layer of chocolate topped with nuts and dried fruits. They refined and elevated it by pairing only a single fruit with a chocolate that best complements its flavour profile.
‘The intention was to create a chocolate that is one of a kind, something distinct and elegant,’ Zanardi explains, and the Birley interpretation is an alluring array of sleek, slim rectangles in combinations that include dark chocolate and pistachio, milk chocolate and sesame, and white chocolate and matcha-lemon. Birley Chocolate’s signature boxes, whose beautiful design echoes the interior of the shop, contain a selection of 12, 24 or 48 of these delicious chocolates.
As well as the signature collections, the shop offers almond, hazelnut and popcorn dragées, and orangettes – candied orange from Corsica coated with dark chocolate. There are also dark, milk or white chocolate bars, slabs and sticks, lavished with roasted nuts and fragrant fruit.
In addition to its sumptuous house confections, Birley Chocolate celebrates other chocolate makers from around the world, offering a range of outstanding specialist bars, including those made by Nicolas Berger, the renowned pâtissier who is devoted to the sourcing and production of chocolate for use by pastry chefs. ‘This will give purists the opportunity to enjoy the product alone and for, the more daring, a chance to bake with it,’ says Zanardi, who holds a deep respect and appreciation for artisan producers.
Birley Chocolate goods are available to purchase online or at the shop, which also boasts an elegant seating arrangement where breakfast and lunch are served, and customers may sit and enjoy a croque monsieur or a salad, among other dishes, while taking in the ambience and contemplating which chocolates to take home.
