Peter Dale

Athens may be a little behind Atlanta when it comes to artisanal foods, but we're working on it, and here's the next step. Nicholas Dale, along with brother and The National chef-owner Peter Dale, plans to open Condor Chocolates in the Five Points space next to J. Christopher's sometime this fall.

We haven't reached Nick yet for comment, but Peter says, "We'll be importing beans from Ecuador, our mother's homeland. This will be a 'bean-to-bar' shop, focusing primarily on bars, and a few truffles, baked goods, sipping chocolates, gelatos, etc. The exact product mix is still in the works."

The name comes from the Andean condor, which Dale says is "the national symbol of Ecuador."

Responding to Flagpole's characterization of the new place as a "fancy chocolate shop," Dale counters that he considers it more "a thoughtful chocolate shop," and adds that they're "aiming for an educational component to the business. For those interested, we would love to tell the story of how a cocoa bean makes its way from Ecuador and into a chocolate bar in Athens. The entire production process will be open and visible to guests. We are inspired by chocolate programs from Dandelion in San Francisco and Mast Brothers in Brooklyn."

So, it's not Jacques Torres frou-frou nonsense, but, you know… fancy.

The website so far is limited to an email sign-up option, but it exists and is, not surprisingly, well designed.

Read Peter Dale's installment of The Athens Diet here.