Longtime chocolate and honey
shop crosses the river

By Jake Spitzack | Staff Writer | December 2024

Fresh, crunchy honeycomb and delectable craft chocolates are now just a short drive away, thanks to one of the West Side’s newest business arrivals: Mademoiselle Miel, located near Harriet Island at 201 Ohio St. The honey and chocolate shop operated downtown on Kellogg Boulevard West for 13 years and reopened in its new space in early November. Owner Susan Brown is an avid beekeeper who uses raw honey from her own hives, rather than processed sweeteners, to bring her chocolate to life.

“We’d been outgrown for probably five years,” she said, noting they’ve upgraded from 900 square feet to 6,000. “All the ideas that have been brewing, kind of waiting for an opportunity, feel possible.”

Brown’s most popular products are her signature honey bon bons – honey encased in a shell of pure dark chocolate – and dairy-free artisan chocolate bars. The cranberry wild rice bar recently won first place in the 2024 International Chocolate Awards, Brown’s third time taking gold in the contest.

“The judges mentioned the great representation of our state by using wild rice, which was the idea of it all,” she said. “You can’t say Minnesota more than with this bar. As a matter of fact, the Minnesota Wild are calling it their official chocolate bar.”

Brown also offers cocoa nibs, jarred honey, maple sugar, blueberries, a noncaffeinated cacao brew similar to coffee and more.

Her foray into the apiary and chocolate worlds stemmed from her decision as a young adult to eat healthier. A self-proclaimed “slave of sweets,” she said her daily decisions used to be swayed by getting a sugar fix, such as going out of her way to get gas somewhere that had a certain candy bar. When changing her dietary habits, she didn’t want to give up sweets entirely so she looked to honey as a healthier alternative. Luckily, her mother, a chef, was able to help her refine her recipes, and she soon found herself regularly buying 5-gallon jars of honey from farmers markets. Before long, she was knocking on a farmhouse door in Wisconsin and getting permission from Dale Wolf to help with his beehives for the season so she could learn the craft of beekeeping herself.

“I was trying to solve the honey problem, so I wasn’t as interested in the agricultural part,” said Brown. “When I came in that first day, I had a suit on and everything, and he [Wolf] opened the hive up, and the sound of 60,000 bees was phenomenal and overwhelming. At first instant it was terrifying, but by the time I exhaled, it was mesmerizing. It transformed me in a second and I’ve been in love with bees ever since.”

She and Wolf have since become neighbors at the St. Paul Farmers Market, which is launching its winter market on Dec. 7. She has also received training by a professional chocolatier, and was a board member of the Minnesota Hobby Beekeeping Association for eight years.

By next year, Brown will operate about 20 beehives at her new building, each of which can produce 1-5 gallons of honey. She also manages rooftop beehives for Union Depot. She said not many beekeepers have rooftop hives, although that’s what she had for more than a dozen years at her old location. She was inspired to have them after seeing them at the Paris Opera House in France, while visiting to compare the quality of her pastries to those found in France – notably, Miel means “honey” in French.

This winter, Brown will organize classes to teach chocolate making and decorating, as well as tastings, and art shows with chocolate and honey themes. Community meals or bodega nights featuring products from St. Paul Farmers Market vendors may be held. She’s also exploring ways to educate kids about bees and is considering creating a therapy room of sorts where people could be immersed in a colony’s buzzing sounds. Currently, only the front of the shop is set up, but event spaces will be complete in the coming months.

In January, she’s launching a nonprofit called Building Bees. With it, she plans to help establish bee colonies in North Carolina, which recently faced environmental devastation during Hurricane Helene. She also plans to create local “bee yards” to help community gardens and the environment overall.

“There’s a lot of people who are interested in keeping bees but don’t want to commit to it or know how to really get off the ground, and so they could get equipment and start their own hive and then once a week they’d meet with a pro,” she said. “We could make these little hubs around the city that would help with pollinating, and help people connect with the nature they’re living in…. If something comes up [and people decide to stop beekeeping] then as an organization we can keep the bees safe.”

Mademoiselle Miel is open noon-5 p.m., Tuesdays through Thursdays, and noon-7 p.m., Fridays. For more information, call 651-226-4703 or visit mademoisellemiel.com.

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