THE DELIBERATE DETOUR | FROM THE VAULT
November 2, 2018 • Universal CityWalk, Orlando, Florida
Some detours call for reservations, itineraries, and sensible shoes.
This one called for chocolate.
On November 2, 2018, a visit to Universal CityWalk in Orlando led us straight to the wonderfully whimsical Toothsome Chocolate Emporium. With its towering smokestacks, gleaming pipes, and warm lights against a pink-and-purple Florida sky, the place looked less like a restaurant and more like a chocolate lover’s daydream.
And we weren’t there for dinner. We had come for the treats. Period.
Then came the milkshake.
Served in a mason jar and crowned with a mountain of whipped cream, strawberries, chocolate pieces, and a cheerful striped straw, it was gloriously over the top. Chocolate swirled down the glass as though it had absolutely no intention of behaving.
Calling it a “drink” felt a little ridiculous. It was a total meal in itself.
That whimsical factory took me straight back to Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a book I loved as a child, and Gene Wilder in the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory movie. All that was missing was a golden ticket!
And there’s a lovely personal connection, too. While living in Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard and working at The Edgartown National Bank, I met Roald Dahl’s former wife, actress Patricia Neal, and their daughter, Chantal Sophia “Tessa” Dahl. Both were bank customers. Our conversations were brief, but I remember them as lovely ladies. Patricia also did a great deal of charity work on the Vineyard each year. Funny what an old photograph can bring back!
That’s what I love about little detours like this one. No complicated agenda. No need to turn the moment into something profound. Just a pretty evening, a delicious indulgence, and a memory that still makes us smile eight years later.
And what a sweet year to pull this one from the vault! Toothsome first opened in September 2016, which means 2026 marks its 10th anniversary. Ten years of showstopping desserts, imaginative surroundings, and giving chocolate lovers a very good reason to make a stop at CityWalk.
Looking at these photographs now, I can almost see those smokestacks glowing across the water and taste that impossibly decadent shake.
Sometimes the destination isn’t a place you travel to. Sometimes it’s dessert.
And that’s a detour worth repeating.
Travel discerningly. Love deeply.
Live deliberately.
