Fran's Chocolates, or Fran's, is a chocolate company founded by Fran Bigelow and based in Seattle, Washington. The company is best known for their salted chocolate-covered caramels.[2][3][4] Fran's Chocolates has locations in the Seattle metropolitan area and throughout Japan.[5]
History
Fran Bigelow was born and raised in Seattle and trained as an accountant.[6] She graduated from the University of Washington in 1965 with a degree in business administration and travelled to France with her husband about five years later.[7] Her husband was a hospital administrator, and his career required them to move to San Francisco.[6] Bigelow enrolled in professional cooking classes at California Culinary Academy, where she apprenticed with a Swiss pastry chef.[6][8][9] In 1980, they returned to Seattle, and in 1982 she began selling chocolate truffles and desserts from a small shop in Seattle’s Madison Park neighborhood.[8][9] There were two employees at the original shop and the truffles were originally priced at 35 cents each.[7] Eventually, she developed the store's signature Gold Bars because she wanted a candy that was not as perishable as the truffles. The Gold Bars quickly became a customer favorite, and by 1996 she was selling nearly 500,000 Gold Bars a year.[6] In 1986, Bigelow began making caramels.[7]
In 1998, she began adding gray salt to the caramels.[3][10][11] By 2006, the caramels made up seventy-five percent of the company's sales, and by 2008 the caramels were the bestseller, partly due to publicity from former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.[3][12] In 2006, Fran's was featured in O, The Oprah Magazine and the company consequently reached a record $4.5 million sales for the year.[4][7] By 2007, Fran's had forty employees, and Bigelow's daughter, Andrina, joined the company.[7][13] In 2008, Fran's opened a location in Downtown Seattle in the Four Seasons hotel.[14] The Downtown location would take over as the flagship store.[14]
In 2014, the company moved its headquarters from the Capitol Hill neighborhood to the historic Rainier Brewing Company building in the Georgetown neighborhood.[15] At the time, the company had 67 employees and was making 30,000 pieces of chocolate per day and shipping regularly across the United States and to Japan.[15] In 2018, she was inducted into the Specialty Food Association Hall of Fame for "sparking the artisan chocolate renaissance in the United States".[16] In 2021, Food & Wine named Fran's one of the top 50 chocolate shops in the United States.[17]
Book
In 2004, Bigelow published a book, Pure Chocolate: Divine Desserts and Sweets from the Creator of Fran’s Chocolates, which she co-authored with Helene Siegel.[18][19] The book contains chocolate recipes that are not "too difficult" to make.[20] It was nominated for 2005 James Beard Foundation Award in the Baking and Desserts category.[21]
"The country's best overall chocolatier in the United States" by The Book of Chocolate[14]
In popular culture
Fran's was featured in Season 1, Episode 22 of Food Finds, which aired on the Food Network in May 2002.[25] The company was also featured on Food Network's The Best Thing I Ever Ate: Season's Eatings.[26]
Former President Obama and Michelle Obama occasionally had the chocolates shipped to the White House.[12][27][28][29] Bigelow donated to Obama's campaign and was able to meet Michelle Obama.[29] Michelle Obama sent Fran's caramels to Barbara Walters and the cast of The View as a thank you for her recent appearance.[29]
