Chocolate Heaven

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This article appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of Texoma Living!

Note 06/03/11: Anjanette’s is no longer in business in Gainesville.

by Deidre Woodard

Anjanette’s Chocolate Café & Truffle Shoppe is on the square in Gainesville across from the Cooke County Courthouse. Inside, on the wall, is a mural depicting historic downtown Gainesville. There are a classic silver candelabra and big leather chairs, and stacks of decorative gift boxes adorned with ribbons imprinted with the store’s tagline, “For the Love of Chocolate,” which sums things up nicely.

There’s more of course, a large selection of other sweets, nuts, and luxurious gift items from Lavender Ridge Farms, but make no mistake, chocolate is what it is all about.

Anjanette Chrustawka is resident chocolatier, best known for her chocolate truffles—nuggets of ganache rolled in cocoa or other coatings that only look like the things pigs scrounge for under oak trees. The truffles are the undisputed stars of the display case, but there are also pecan logs, toffee, turtles, brick chocolate, all, like the truffles, made by hand in the store. Anjanette’s mother, Diane Trueblood, does the displays.

Before starting her chocolate venture, Anjanette was doing mergers and acquisitions for a financial company in California. Born in Ohio, raised in California, she came to Gainesville when her Texas husband came home. She grew up on a farm in a family that took pride in setting their table with what they made. She stayed in the money game for a while after coming to Texas, but eventually, in 2004, heritage and inclination drew her from the world of sweet deals to dealing in sweets. Gainesville has taken to Anjanette’s chocolates and she has taken to Gainesville. She likes living in Gainesville and said the hospitality of the merchants and of the people in town is the thing that she loves most. “It’s like going back in time a bit. When you go to the post office, people know you.” She also likes the pace of life of a smaller town.

You might think that it would be difficult to work around chocolate every day and not eat up the profits, but Anjanette has figured it out. “I do not deprive myself,” she says. But as she is around it every day, she says it is not as much of a temptation as you might expect. For the rest of us, those who might lack the willpower to avoid the dark temptations, she has a book which tells you how to lose weight on a chocolate diet. And if you believe that there’s a bridge in Brooklyn—

Anjanette’s Chocolate Café & Truffle Shoppe serves lunch on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The most popular menu items are the Lavender Honey Chicken Salad and the Basil Pesto Pasta Salad. They also serve a nonalcoholic chocolate drink. The café accommodates private parties of up to 25 guests. Catering is also available. Lavender Ridge Farms grows all the herbs, lettuce and vegetables that Anjanette uses to prepare the lunches as well as a special selection of seasonal specialty truffles: fresh mint, rose-geranium, lemon grass, and chili pepper.

Anjanette’s Chocolate Café & Truffle Shoppe
105 W. California St.
Gainesville, TX 76240
Phone: (940) 665-8225
Fax: (940) 665-8282
www.anjanettes.com