May 16, 2017

Meet Katherine Duncan of Katherine Anne Confections in Logan Square

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Katherine Duncan.

Katherine first ventured into the world of artisan confections at the age of 10, when she would use cream from her family’s Jersey cows to create soft, old-fashioned caramels on their small Wisconsin farm. “Katherine’s Karamels” were sold at her Dad’s office for 25 cents each, and quickly became a local favorite. Soon, her caramels and truffles were highly anticipated gifts every Christmas. In the fall of 2006, Katherine Anne Confections was launched in Chicago to rave reviews, and in 2012 Katherine opened her cafe in the Logan Square neighborhood at 2745 W Armitage. Today, you can find Katherine in her kitchen at the cafe, stirring caramel and rolling truffles just like she did at age 10, but with a lot more chocolate.

Has it been a smooth road?
Not at all! Is it ever, though? There have been lots of struggles for sure, from staffing to money to simply branding ourselves appropriately. Lack of money + lack of experience really combined into an interesting challenge. If I started a business now, I would want to save up decent capital – at least 100k – to make things cost-effective from the start. However, if I’d had that when I first started, I can guarantee that I would have spent the money on the wrong things, like a terrible PR firm (get a good one) or my own space (not cost effective ’til much larger). It makes sense to invest in equipment to reduce labor on handmade goods – that’s what we’re aiming for now.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
We’re an artisan chocolatier creating micro-batch, local-focused truffles, caramels, marshmallows and drinking chocolate. Sustainability is extremely important to us, so we use rainforest-alliance certified fair-trade cacao, compost all of our food waste, and source local cream / honey to replace corn syrup. We’re known for our decadent, seriously delicious sweets and high attention to detail. We launch a weekly special truffle and caramel with seasonal ingredients, available just in our confiserie and at farmer’s markets. We have a menu of 12 drinking chocolates, topped with one of 6 flavors of pillow marshmallows.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Hmm, that’s a loaded question 😉 Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It really depends on your alderman, from what I’ve found. Each neighborhood is different. I’d suggest folks reach out to the alderman in the area they are considering starting their business, and go from there. Dealing with the city itself is a bit prohibitive due to the numerous licenses, fees, etc. However, I know that many other cities are the same way. Finding a way to reduce wait times at city hall would be a huge improvement, and also make processes clear as we sometimes get different answers from different people.

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