Two sisters who began their journey in the chocolate world as wide-eyed teenagers at the Santa Rosa Night Market and later opened a chocolate boutique in San Francisco have now brought their famous chocolate brand to doorsteps around the world.
Socola Chocolatier, founded by Wendy and Susan Lieu, opened a second store last week at San Francisco International Airport in Terminal 3, which serves domestic flights on United Airlines. Travelers can now take home a delicious and unique California souvenir with them, set against the backdrop of Sonoma County history.
“I always dreamed of having a business in the airport, where there would be a lot of opportunities to get exposure internationally. Not many people know about our business, but we’ve been around for 23 years,” said Wendy Lieu, CEO and chocolatier of Socola.
“Socola” is Vietnamese for chocolate, and Lieu’s creations are infused with the flavors of their Vietnamese heritage. Socola’s most popular product is its Little Saigon Truffle Box, filled with the flavors of a four-course Vietnamese meal, including jasmine tea, pho, sriracha, and durian, to name a few.
Wendy Lieu was a toddler when her family immigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1983, and she said the new airport location was a moment of closure.
“That’s where we first set foot in the United States, in SFO,” she said. “It changed our lives in terms of the opportunities that the United States has given us. … It shows that we’ve made it, that we have a business in SFO.”
Lieu and her sister Susan, who helps her with her business and marketing from her home in Seattle where she is also a performing artist and author, moved to Santa Rosa as children. They lived and attended schools in Rincon Valley and graduated from Maria Carillo High School. The duo began selling chocolates when Wendy was 19 and Susan was still in school.
“Back then, our idea was to make the freshest chocolate you’ve ever tasted. We’re going to make it that same day and sell it,” Lieu said of their fledgling business at the Santa Rosa Night Market in 2001.
They made the chocolates in their microwave at home, then rushed downtown to set up a table in front of the family’s nail salon on Fourth Street.
Their ambition, however, was thwarted by naivety – and by the Department of Health, which shut them down for selling products made in a home kitchen at a time when artisanal food laws didn’t allow it.
“That day, I felt a pang in my heart. We had to close everything,” Lieu recalls. “There was a long line of people… waving their money, wanting to buy these chocolates.”
They quickly obtained the necessary permits and business premises and continued to sell chocolates during summer holidays and public holidays. Eventually, their burgeoning careers took them on a detour, until Susan moved to Vietnam and began working with cocoa farmers and Wendy came to visit.
It was an experience that inspired them to take their teenage entrepreneurial adventure more seriously.
Wendy attended Tante Marie’s Baking School to hone her skills, and they opened a shop near the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2014.
Late last year, Wendy applied for one of two coveted positions at the airport, submitting reams of paperwork and letters of recommendation explaining why Socola would be a great small business for the airport. She learned in February that Socola had been selected, and it’s been a whirlwind ever since.
Both sisters are raising young children, and earlier this year Susan published a book, a memoir called “The Manicurist’s Daughter,” which she has been busy promoting. She was back in San Francisco with her sister for opening day last Thursday. (The store is offering signed copies of the book.)
A collection of San Francisco souvenir truffles that Lieus sold only during the holidays will now be available year-round in stores and online. The truffles feature images of iconic San Francisco landmarks, filled with hazelnut praline, fernet liqueur, dark chocolate and champagne.
They will also continue to offer seasonal specials, including boxes for the Lunar New Year and the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival, which Wendy says will feature her signature mooncake chocolate: a dark chocolate shell with a white chocolate and lotus seed ganache and a salted egg yolk center that she hardens in-house.
“It feels similar (to a mooncake),” she said. “When you open it, you see an egg yolk inside, but it’s not cooked, it’s a chocolate confection.”
In addition to boxed truffles, Socola also makes chocolate bars that incorporate cereal like Cinnamon Toast Crunch and lime soda with Pop Rocks.
“The bars allow us to be creative in a different way,” Wendy said. “It’s about bringing back childhood nostalgia and fond memories in an edible form.”
Although she says returning to Sonoma County to sell chocolates isn’t in her plans, there is a nod to Socola at her brother’s dental office in Rohnert Park.
“There’s a Peanuts statue with a box of Socola chocolates in Lucy’s hand,” Wendy said. “He had an artist paint the logo on it. I was so excited.”
You can reach staff writer Jennifer Graue at 707-521-5262 or jennifer.graue@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @JenInOz.
