Dan Abel Jr. runs Bissinger's Handcrafted Chocolatier alongside his brother and sister, but the company itself predates their family by centuries. Bissinger's traces back to 1668 Paris, when it was named confectioner to the French royal court under Louis XIV, a title, Confiseur Imperial, still stamped on every box today. The brand survived multiple French monarchs before relocating to Cincinnati in 1845, and Abel's family, who had run their own candy company, Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate, since 1981, acquired Bissinger's in 2019, deliberately changing nothing about the recipes for the first six months to avoid disrupting a brand with that much history.
Abel says roughly half of Bissinger's staying power comes from ingredients pulled from an 1899 recipe book, real vanilla, cane sugar and butter with no artificial flavors or preservatives, and the other half from meticulous handmade production, where a single quality-control operator hand-sprinkles salt onto every caramel and can stop the line the moment something looks off. The company has since layered in new products without touching the base chocolate or its decades-old vanilla supplier, including a cinnamon pear caramel bar and market-specific collections, like a Royal Florida line sold only at the Sarasota and Tampa boutiques.
Why Sarasota The UTC-area store, Bissinger's twelfth retail location, opened after a combination of family history and a good real estate lead: Abel's wife grew up vacationing in Sarasota and pointed him toward the market, and a broker showing him UTC mall pointed out a space that had just opened up after a tea shop's lease ended. The company plans to pause its retail expansion once it reaches a dozen locations to study which markets deserve further investment. Abel notes the online direct-to-consumer business quadrupled after the family took over, a surge partly driven by pandemic-era digital experimentation and partly, his marketing team insists, by his own instincts.
On roundabouts, Abel, new to Sarasota and used to St. Louis having none at all, jokes that his GPS routes him through six roundabouts in three miles and initially assumed locals must hate them, until the hosts note their own guest opinions run about fifty-fifty. He recalls a previous guest's line that roundabouts are like communism, they only work if everyone buys in, as the best answer the show has gotten on the subject. The Sarasota store held its grand opening on July 23, selling fresh-dipped seasonal chocolates that rotate monthly, from summer raspberries to a fall blackberry season available only in September.
What you'll take away
- Bissinger's traces back to 1668 Paris, where it was named confectioner to the French royal court under Louis XIV
- Abel's family, who own Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate since 1981, acquired Bissinger's in 2019 and kept the original recipes unchanged for the first six months
- The company's Sarasota UTC store carries a Royal Florida collection sold only in Sarasota and Tampa
- Online direct-to-consumer sales quadrupled after the family took over Bissinger's, accelerated by pandemic-era digital sales
- The Sarasota store rotates seasonal products monthly, including a fresh-dipped raspberry season in July and blackberry season in September
“We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams.”
“It's like communism. If you all don't buy in, it doesn't work.”
Places mentioned: UTC, St. Armands Circle