Former Israeli soldier Oded Brenner had a vision: "I'll open a small chocolate shop, I'll have my small house, my bike. I will go every day to the shop, make some chocolate, go back home." Be careful what you wish for. Twelve years later, home is New York City, where his new restaurant, Chocolate by the Bald Man Max Brenner (one of 20 on four continents), has Hershey-hued overhead pipes, a 30-page menu of chocolatey delights and crowds snaking out the doors.
HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE
For Brenner, 38, chocolate should be smelled, touched and played with. "Chocolate compels so many emotions," says Brenner, who trained in Austria, Germany and at Paris's Fauchon food emporium. Take his six blends of hot chocolate. To capture the feel of a snowy day, he created "hug mugs" that require two hands to hold. Cappuccinos come in "kangaroo cups," with a pouch for chocolate to ooze into the coffee. "The dishes are interactive: You roast your own marshmallows, dip them in sauce," says Tish Boyle, editor of Chocolatier magazine. "It brings out the kid in us."
CHOCOLATE KISSES
Man, of course, does not live by chocolate alone. Brenner hits the gym daily and tools around on his bike, chocolate brown, of course. "Everything he does is intense," says Liron Hen, 27, his Israeli girlfriend. "My thoughts are always flying from here to there," Brenner admits. Already, he's thinking L.A., Miami, maybe Vegas. "I never stop," he says.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
