At 77, Encore Chocolates’ Founder Still Works a Shift at the Business

Nearly 40 years ago Nancy Stiebitz left a career as nurse practitioner to pursue her hobby — making chocolate. The business is now owned by her son, but she still shows up to work

By Linda Quinlan

 

Chocolate: Call it a food group, a therapy, an obsession or, simply, very tasty.

For Nancy Stiebitz, founder of the Irondequoit-based Encore Chocolates, the creamy confection is “just a passion.” She said she eats chocolate almost every day.

Chocolate also led to a change in careers.

Stiebitz, who also resides in Irondequoit, had been a nurse practitioner at Wilson Health Center in Rochester for 13 years when a new neighbor mentioned that she might consider turning her hobby into a business.

She credits her aunt with getting her started. After learning how from her aunt, she began molding chocolates at her home and giving them to friends and family.

She took some of her creations to the new neighbor, Carol D’Agostino, Stiebitz recalled, noting that D’Agostino said, “we should talk.”

It turns out that D’Agostino had a chocolate business before she moved to Irondequoit and had heard that the Rochester General Hospital gift shop was looking for a supplier, because the one they had was retiring.

Stiebitz won the hospital gift shop contract and Encore Chocolates was born in 1987.

She initially continued to make chocolates in the basement of her home for three years and expanded to providing chocolates for the Strong Hospital gift shop and Justice Florist as well.

Encore Chocolates opened its first shop and “manufacturing” facility on Irondequoit’s Washington Avenue.

Chocolate-making is considered a manufacturing business, Stiebitz explained, because they have and use machines, particularly those that melt and cool the chocolate they use.

By 1992, they moved to Titus Avenue, near Hudson, in Irondequoit, and remained there for 13 years.

Encore Chocolates settled in the Stutson Bridge Plaza on Pattonwood Drive, still in Irondequoit, in 2005 and there it remains.

Now 77, Stiebitz still works at the shop at least one day a week and up to 20 hours a week during the busiest seasons: Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter and Halloween.

She remains the only staffer who makes the shop’s signature all-chocolate lotus bowls, which can be ordered in three different sizes and filled with chocolates. Hint: it takes melted chocolate and a balloon to make the lotus bowls.

Stiebitz’s son, Aaron Stiebitz, who had been involved in the business when he was in Rochester for years, officially became its owner in August 2023.

A 1998 graduate of Irondequoit High School, he credits former teacher Bob Geroux with cultivating and supporting his interest in art.

He went on to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, where he studied industrial design technology and special effects makeup.

He started sculpting and soon discovered, he said, “chocolate is like clay in a lot of ways.”

He has done dozens of highly detailed and edible chocolate sculptures over the years. A couple of his creations can be spotted in the shop.

A number of his sculptures were done for charity events like Rochester’s Chocolate Ball and the Seneca Park Zoo’s Zoobilation.

One of the most memorable, he recalled, was a pair of giraffes, sculpted out of caramel popcorn and chocolate. The piece was auctioned off and donated to a school. He agreed to deliver it, a feat in itself, and the students at the school got to eat it!

He sculpted a chocolate Garfield for the wedding of a couple who loved the cartoon cat.

He also sculpted a chocolate Notre Dame cathedral for the Eastman House museum’s annual gingerbread display.

He estimates that each creation, including a chocolate replica of Michelangelo’s Pieta, has taken between 40 hours and two weeks to complete.

“He’s patient and meticulous,” his mother said proudly.

Now 46, he did work in his field locally at Eastman Opera Productions and on what he called “a B class horror movie,” but eventually moved to Los Angeles to try his luck there.

After discovering he couldn’t rent an apartment without proof of income, he landed at a popular coffee chain there called The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. He became a store manager and eventually training manager for the chain.

His next big move was to become a franchisee for the coffee chain, but in Melbourne, Australia. There were nine stores there when he arrived and 12 when he left.

Realizing that pursuing a career in art and “movie things” just wasn’t realistic anymore, he said, he returned to Rochester.

He has now made his home here with his son, Lucian, 14.

The pandemic years were a struggle, Nancy and Aaron agreed.

“That was the only time I worried about the business failing,” she said.

They came through, in part due to an influx of corporate clients and their orders, especially at Christmastime.

They no longer do wholesale but have a growing online presence through which orders can be placed. They attract customers around the globe.

They still use the same machines Nancy Stiebitz started with nearly 40 years ago, she said.

Aaron explained they order their chocolate from Africa or South America in 10-pound blocks that are then melted down.

If there’s a trick to chocolate making, it’s that chocolate has to be kept “in temper,” he said. He explained that involves the interaction of the sugar crystals and cocoa butter in the chocolate.

“Chocolate goes through a temperature curve,” in order to work with it, he said.

The shop specializes in molded chocolates; they have hundreds of molds and chocolate clusters and bars that may have mix-ins like nuts, raisins or coconut. They also dip edible treats, think pretzels, marshmallows, Oreos, in chocolate.

A treat they’ve added recently is chocolate creations with edible images and company logos.

“We have a printer dedicated to this process. It’s filled with food coloring rather than ink,” he said.

Their first big order with edible images came from the University of Rochester. They wanted 12,000 units, he said.

Amazingly, the shop keeps up with demand with just 10 employees, half of them seasonal.

The shop has also been having success with new cellophane gift box displays of chocolates, “rather than just molded chocolate,” he said.

The most “magical” item, which is flying off the shelves, however, is a new chocolate: pistachio and sea salt bark.

“It takes all of my production time,” he said. “I have to make it daily.”

As for the future, he said simply, “I’m here for good.” He added proudly that Lucian has also expressed an interest and helps out when he can.

That the business is now held by the second generation and could continue into the third generation “makes me feel good,” his mother said.

“I didn’t want to see the legacy go away,” he added.

He also admitted that he has become the shop’s “quality control taster.”

“I eat probably a half a pound of chocolate a day,” he said with a smile. “It’s definitely my breakfast every day.”

His mother hasn’t slowed down much.

Besides still working at the shop, she puts in even more time now on her other passion: Gardening. She has an extensive perennial garden, some annuals and a vegetable garden. Her husband, Paul, who enjoys woodworking and metalwork, continues to contribute garden art.

She even has her own indoor, year-round gardening space, “but it’s not a ‘she shed’ or greenhouse,” she said. “I call it the Pot House!” She and her gardening friends call themselves “pot heads,” she added with a twinkle.

She has agreed to let her gardens be featured during the Irondequoit Garden Walk (held in July) this year.

“I definitely don’t sit around,” she said.

And she continues to enjoy her chocolate.

“The reason Encore Chocolates are so good is that we don’t add any flavoring … just love,” she said.