Mars opens chocolate cafe

At Ethel’s Chocolate Lounge in Chicago’s Lincoln Park, couples and families relax on plush pastel-colored furniture, eating champagne chocolates and sipping mocha drinks. Mars Inc., the chocolate giant behind Ethel’s, is betting that chocolate is the new coffee. The new chain is Mars’s attempt to make lingering over a plate of premium chocolates in a cafe space as mainstream as drinking a morning latte at Starbucks.
For the company best known for making mass-market products like Twix and Snickers bars, this means transforming a lowly commodity into a high-price luxury. The first Ethel’s Chocolate Lounge opened in April, two more opened this summer and the Chicago area will have a total of six by the end of the summer. The company plans a nationwide rollout later this year.