Elleni Couture in Manhattan Beach; Organic Chocolates With A Kitten Heel

When Skylar Tourigny first began making chocolates, she was intent on selling them at the Manhattan Beach farmers market. "I built a clientèle around them but it was hard to grow at the market," she says of Cacao Couture, the organic chocolate company she founded in 2006. So in January, Tourigny opened Elleni Couture, a designer shoe and chocolate shop in Manhattan Beach.

Shoes. And chocolate. Together. At last.

Jenn Garbee

Are Those Godivas?

"I'd like to take credit but it was my husband's idea," says Tourigny. "He said, 'You've always had a passion for shoes, so why not combine it with your chocolates?'"

When she was selling them at the market, Tourigny made the organic chocolates herself. "I like exotic flavors, Asian fruits like coconut-pandan."

Today, she commissions several Oregon chocolatiers, including Lillie Belle Farms, to make the shoe shop's chocolates (there's still time to make chocolates there yourself).

For daredevils with a shoe fetish, Tourigny offers the Sky High Club. Shoe-shopping members receive a beverage and a parting gift-- a chocolate truffle, of course (what were you thinking?).

Eleni Couture, 1100 Manhattan Ave, Manhattan Beach, (310) 376-3553‎