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May 12, 2025
WAUSAU – Though longtime chocolate entrepreneurs, Paul and Kristin Zaal, co-owners of The Chocolate Café, said a vacation to Holland inspired their idea to open a unique coffee shop in Wausau
The couple said when they visited Paul’s home country, they visited a chocolate café, which sparked their idea to open a similar shop in downtown Wausau.
Now, as the shop celebrates its first year in business, the couple said it has panned out to be a great decision.
“It had such a great atmosphere and interior decorations,” Paul said. “Because we were in the chocolate business already, we thought we could bring this concept to America with hot chocolate drinks. We thought maybe we’d have to open the café in Madison, Milwaukee or Chicago until an opportunity came up in downtown Wausau.”
As the former manager of the old Wausau Center mall, Paul said he was familiar with the area.
The café (300 N. 3rd St., Suite 102) is located in a smaller shopping center across the street from where the mall used to be before it was demolished.
“When we looked at this space, we immediately had a good feeling,” he said. “It used to be a clothing store, but Kristin and I could envision what it would be like as a café – where we would put our gelato, where we would put a coffee machine, etc. That was in December 2023. We had four months of construction and opened last year.”
The Zaals said they didn’t want The Chocolate Café to be “a normal coffee shop.”
“We really wanted to have a European atmosphere,” Paul said. “When people come to our café and stay, they will get a free chocolate. They will get their coffee in a nice cup. Our theme is chocolate, and we like to do everything chocolate. If you look at our hot chocolate drinks, we have Belgian Cocoa Bombs filled with mini-marshmallows.”
Kristin said the shop’s signature drink is the cocoa latte.
“We make it with real Belgian chocolate, steamed milk and stir it all up for you,” she said. “You can put whipped cream on it, too. It’s a favorite – people keep coming back for it.”
Kristin said The Chocolate Café has chocolate fondue and other baked goods available, too.
“We also have smoothies and some amazing baked goods,” she said. “A local baker – she is a professional baker working in a professional kitchen – from Mosinee makes amazing European croissants. She got her recipes from a Scottish baker after he retired.”
Paul said keeping it local with products in the café is important to them.
“Our coffee is from Condor Coffee Company in Wausau, our bakery items are local from Bealightful Acres Bakery in Mosinee, our gelato is from Sara’s (Artisan) Gelato in Green Bay and our fudge is from (Valley Fudge & Candy Company) by La Crosse,” he said. “We can combine these local companies with my experience being in Europe and seeing how people enjoy time with their family and how they meet up in the cafes in downtown areas.”
Paul said the response to The Chocolate Café “has been overwhelming.”
“People love this concept,” he said. “Honestly, every day, there are at least three people who tell us how much they enjoyed it and how much they like coming to our cafe and being there. They tell us how it reminds them of being in Europe.”
Kristin said she is at the café most of the time, while Paul “is the glue that holds everything together.”
“The café has been growing,” she said. “When we first opened a year ago, we had that first boost of something new. Everybody wanted to check us out, but then after a while, things settled down a bit. Then we had Christmas, and it was crazy busy. Now we’re noticing it is steadily getting busier and busier, which is amazing because the word is getting out there.”
In addition to its indoor seating, Kristin said the café has outdoor seating as well.
“It’s becoming more of a fun draw to get people visiting from out of town, too,” she said. “People who are staying at the Jefferson Street Inn and people skiing for the weekend think it’s a really cool place.”
The other side of the business
The couple said opening The Chocolate Café was made easier because of their other business – The Chocolate Shop, located at 532 S. 3rd Ave.
“We began running The Chocolate Shop in 2021,” Paul said. “It’s outside of the downtown area, about two and a half minutes away from The Chocolate Café, not in a very high-traffic area.”
Paul said before opening The Chocolate Shop, they were originally looking for a packing facility for their wholesale chocolate items.
“We couldn’t really find a suitable warehouse for various reasons,” he said. “Because we’re dealing with a chocolate food item, we needed a facility where we had three-compartment sinks and it was clean. While we were looking, we ended up looking at this smaller space on 3rd Avenue.”
Paul said the space was perfect for what they wanted to do.
Intending for it to be for wholesale packaging imported chocolates from Holland and Belgium, Paul said they took a small pivot.
“We thought, ‘Why not put in a little storefront and get customer response to our chocolates,’” he said. “We started doing that, and after two or three months, we were so busy with that retail that we didn’t get to any packaging for our wholesale – it was crazy.”
Paul said it was a rather scary time to be opening a new business.
“Everything was closing during the COVID-19 pandemic, and here we were – right after COVID – opening The Chocolate Shop,” he laughed. “The media came out, so we got a lot of publicity, and more and more people started visiting us and really loved our product and what we were doing because it is very unique. You can’t find – even in the bigger cities – what we’re importing from Holland and Belgium.”
What makes European chocolate so unique?
Kristin said the No. 1 reason it tastes better is the cocoa beans used.
“I’ve been getting more involved in the chocolate-making process,” she said. “Wherever the bean comes from, where it’s grown, etc., that is important. Also, the amount of cocoa butter in the chocolate (is important). If you look at the back of an American-made chocolate bar, it has cocoa butter as an ingredient, but I can guarantee you European chocolate has more cocoa butter and more natural ingredients.”
Kristin said extra fillers are added to American chocolate as well.
“That definitely changes the flavor,” she said. “I think everyone here has just gotten used to it, but if you taste the two side by side, you taste the difference. European chocolate is much creamier and richer.”
Part of the reasoning behind that, Kristin said, is that Europe is “very picky about its chocolate ingredients.”
“There are very few items (in Europe) that have artificial dyes anymore,” she said. “Everything has to be on the label. If it’s genetically modified, it has to be on the label. Even with some of the gummies we import, they’re made with red beetroot juice. The truffle fillings all have natural colors.”
Recognition
The Chocolate Café was named a finalist for the 2025 Small Business of the Year through the Greater Wausau Chamber of Commerce.
Though the café did not win, Paul said it was a “great honor to be nominated.”
“We are so proud to be part of the Wausau community and incredibly grateful for the support of our amazing customers,” he said. “We’d like to thank the Greater Wausau Chamber of Commerce for thinking of us.”
