After more than 30 years of delectable cakes and delicious breakfast, lunch, and brunch fare, could Santa Fe’s Chocolate Maven get any better? The answer is yes, with the exciting launch of Unit B.
Unit B, Chocolate Maven’s Jazzy New Dinner Theater
This spectacular dinner theater sits next door to the Chocolate Maven in a soaring space that, over the years, has been home to a furniture store, a children’s theater, and various other businesses. When Unit B recently became available, Chocolate Maven’s co-owner Dharm Andrew Segal – who co-owns Chocolate Maven with his wife, Cassie Ramos – saw the potential for a beguiling performance space, where musicians, actors, and comedians could enchant guests after an upscale dinner in a cocktail bar ambience, à la Humphrey Bogart.
“I’m a musician, I play guitar, I play piano, and I sing, occasionally,” Segal says. “It was a why not. If I knew what it would take, I wouldn’t have done it, but sometimes life just grabs you.”
Creating a Space for Entertainment
A tour of Unit B with Segal shortly before its debut in early September revealed just how much was required to transform the 3,500-square-foot-space into an inviting dinner theater that accommodates up to 227 people. A teak cocktail bar greets guests at the entry way, next to a roll-up garage door. Tables and chairs fill the main floor. Upstairs, balcony seating overlooks the wide stage, where a restored 1892 Steinway piano promises lively music from jazz players and other local musicians.
Unit B serves dinner from 5 to 7 p.m., followed by a 7:30 p.m. show. The menu features fancy pizza baked in a wood-burning oven, pasta, and green chile cheeseburgers. Alluring craft cocktails include Love, a blend of mezcal, coconut milk, house-made orgeat (almond syrup), lime, ginger, Peychaud’s bitters, and rosewater, garnished with smoked chili salt, dry rose petals, and dill flowers.
Segal regards Chocolate Maven as theater, in a sense. “It’s something of an art form and certainly the food is part of that,” he says. Unit B, then, isn’t so much of a stretch. “Here, we’re trying to bring a lot of joy and upliftment, which we desperately need after the pandemic. What I love is making people happy.”
For more than three decades, guests have left Chocolate Maven looking very happy. Now, beaming guests light up the night after an evening at this welcoming new dinner theater.
Story by Lynn Cline
Photo Courtesy of Carl Coan
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