A longtime Connecticut chocolatier is gearing up to bring its handmade confections to the western suburbs of Boston.
Bridgewater Chocolate recently filed permits to open a new retail shop at 59 Central Street in Wellesley Square, according to The Swellesley Report. The shop will take over the space formerly occupied by Wellesley Toy Shop, which closed in late 2025 after decades at the location.
The new store will mark Bridgewater Chocolate’s return to Massachusetts after previously operating locations in Chestnut Hill and on Newbury Street in Boston. The company’s website currently teases, “Stay tuned for our next location in Boston.”
Bridgewater Chocolate got its start at the Bridgewater Village Store in Bridgewater, Connecticut. In 1994, store owner Peter May hired Swedish chef Erik Landegren to improve the store’s food offerings. Landegren began making bread, ice cream, and salads, eventually experimenting with chocolate in the store’s basement, where Bridgewater’s first confections were created in 1995.
As the chocolates grew in popularity, May brought in writer, marketer, and filmmaker Andrew Blauner in 1997 to help spin the chocolate-making operation into its own business. Blauner and Landegren bought the business from May and officially formed Bridgewater Chocolate LLC in 1999.
More than 25 years later, Bridgewater Chocolate has grown into what the company describes as a premier New England confectioner. Its chocolates are now produced at a 25,000-square-foot factory in neighboring Brookfield, Connecticut and sold through the company’s Connecticut shops and other retailers throughout the state.
The chocolatier specializes in generously sized handmade confections, including its award-winning pecan and almond Törtéls, toffees, caramels, truffles, and peanut butter patties, along with chocolate-covered fruits and other sweets. The chocolates are hand-packaged in the brand’s distinctive hinged gift boxes, which have become a signature part of the Bridgewater Chocolate experience.
Bridgewater Chocolate has not yet announced an opening date for the upcoming Wellesley shop. What Now Boston has reached out to the company for additional details about the new location and its anticipated opening timeline and will share updates as they become available.
