What Is the Secret at Chocolate Secrets?

Pam Eudaric wants more people to “be open to yes.” For the former lawyer turned Dallas chocolate café owner and multi-company founder and CEO, it isn’t just a snappy self-help phrase. It’s an outlook on life. It’s a way of living. In many ways, it’s her secret to success.

When Eudaric wanted to build her own house, she said yes to becoming a contractor. When she wanted to spend more time with her kids, she said yes to leaving her job as a lawyer. When a friend suggested she open the chocolate shop they had joked about, she said yes to opening Chocolate Secrets.

“I really think the problem is we’re not open to yes. We’re told no from the beginning,” Eudaric says. “All two-year-olds say is no. Do you think they came from the womb like that? That’s all they hear.”
Since opening more than two decades ago, Chocolate Secrets has continued to evolve thanks to Eudaric’s belief in herself and the power of simply saying yes. Chocolate Secrets has become both a go-to for gourmet chocolate in the city and a destination filled with a chocolate box worth of surprises.

Over the years, people approached her with different suggestions for her space. How about a jazz performance at the café? What about selling jewelry? Greeting cards? All of them became part of Chocolate Secrets. “It’s just a lot of things other than chocolate because, why not?” Eudaric says with a laugh.

Eudaric credits growing up in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands with some of the café’s developments, like its acclaimed tearoom, and for the do-it-yourself mindset that’s propelled her through life. Her say-yes attitude led her to a law degree from the University of Texas and later to become the owner of Joe Carter Construction, the company bearing her grandfather’s name that she used to build her house.

Don’t let Eudaric’s laidback demeanor or myriad pursuits distract from Chocolate Secrets’ obvious specialty, however. Amid tea services, regular jazz concerts and open mic poetry, Chocolate Secrets still crafts amazing gourmet chocolate creations.

Eudaric isn’t shy about her high standards for the café’s organic, natural chocolates. In fact, she says she can’t even eat a Hershey’s bar anymore. In her eyes, she’s “stuck” striving for Chocolate Secrets to produce the best chocolate she can create.

She says she enlists chocolatiers with 30 years of experience who use recipes passed down from generation to generation in their families to make the café’s handcrafted chocolates.

“I always say if you’re not going to do the best that you’re capable of doing, then go get a can of beer, go find a great beach and hallucinate, baby,” Eudaric says.
Eudaric provided a sample of the shop’s highlights, and the quality of Chocolate Secrets desserts is certainly no mirage. From chocolate-covered dried fruit to designer chocolate peanut butter and jelly-flavored chocolate bites, Chocolate Secrets products live up to Eudaric’s lofty expectations and put grocery-store versions to shame. For people looking for some Wonka flair from Eudaric’s chocolatiers, there are even regulation-sized chocolate footballs and designer chocolate purses to purchase.

Despite the colorful bonbons and over-the-top chocolate recreations, it’s ultimately a more traditional choice that best embodies what Chocolate Secrets is all about. The Yes, Yes, Yes bonbon combines milk, white and dark chocolates together into one dessert. It doesn’t sound like each flavor of chocolate could coexist with one another, but it’s deeply satisfying. Perhaps it’s proof of what happens if you’re open to yes.

Chocolate Secrets, 3926 Oak Lawn Ave. Monday – Saturday, 10 a.m. – 11 p.m.; Sunday, noon – 6 p.m.