David Fletcher stands behind the counter of his small Bloomington business, BLU Boy Cafe and Cakery, which serves French-themed pastries and artisan scratch-made chocolates. Photos by Nicole McPheeters
BY MICHELLE MASTRO
BLU Boy Chocolate Café and Cakery has been serving hand-crafted chocolates, pastries, ice cream, and hot drinks in the little shop next to the Buskirk-Chumley Theater since 2008, and while owner David Fletcher is a practicing physician, he’s spent time over the last 10 years perfecting the art and craft of pastries and chocolate.
“Our vision is to do our craft in a conscious kind of way, staying true to our vision of what food should be,” says Fletcher, a trained pastry chef and chocolatier. “We never use preservatives, and everything is made from scratch.”
New updates to the BLU Boy winter menu include special date-night fare available Friday and Saturday evenings.
“On the weekends we have plenty of couples coming in as part of their date night to share dessert,” Fletcher says. “We thought it would be fun and adventurous for our pastry staff, as well as for our customers, to have special desserts we don’t typically offer, desserts that might be a little bit more than what is regularly offered here in Bloomington.”
Fletcher says his time training as a pastry chef in New York City helped him envision special weekend treats. “In New York, everything is available all around you, from simple cookies to beautifully presented spectacular desserts,” he says. “It’s difficult to provide all of that variety in one small shop in Bloomington, so we’re sprinkling in some of the more creative items while still keeping the desserts and chocolate creations that our customers have come to expect.”
BLU Boy now has an evolving menu of “specific desserts for the date-night vibe,” including a pink macaron tart, among “other comfort foods for the darkness of winter.” Other holiday-inspired treats include pumpkin-, eggnog-, and gingerbread-flavored chocolate, as well as a very special hot chocolate. “The kind you might find in a European café,” Fletcher says.
“Crafting the perfect chocolate is like making the perfect mixtape and hoping the person you make it for really likes it,” Fletcher says. “The flavors need to blend in the right way.”
For more information, visit bluboychocolatestore.com.
