Educator-Turned Chocolatier Opens Gourmet Confection Shop on Long Beach’s Growing Decadent Row

By: Kristopher Carrasco

If you would have asked Romeo Garcia ten years ago what his future would hold for him, being a professional chocolatier in his own kitchen on Pine Avenue would not have been his answer.

Garcia went from working 14 years in higher education as a dean at Coastline Community College to the world of chocolate-making artistry, a passion that he can now continue to share with the Long Beach community after the grand opening of his chocolate shop, Romeo Chocolates, on Saturday.

“I don’t think I would have ever fathomed that I would transition into this career, but the thing is you don’t know where passion takes you,” he told the Post. “Eight years ago I started studying [chocolate] and I found it to be very meditative [...] so I stuck with it.”

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