Down on Railroad Avenue in Bellingham, there’s an unassuming little shop—so little you might miss it if you blink while driving by. But Sweet Art, a chocolate shop and art gallery owned by Vivian and Jerry Hruska, doesn’t rely on high visibility.
“We have a good customer [base],” Vivian says. “We don’t advertise—[it’s] all word of mouth.”
The power of that word-of-mouth reputation, combined with the quality and creativity of their inventory, is exactly what’s kept Sweet Art going for nearly 30 years.
The Hruskas opened Sweet Art in 1998—they’d moved to Bellingham in 1992 from Laguna Beach, California, where Jerry had run a small chocolate shop and Vivian had managed an art store.
“We like the energy of a college town,” Vivian says of why they moved to Bellingham, “with the youth and the mixture of people that are here.”
For the first five or so years, Jerry worked in electronics repair and Vivian continued to work in retail at various art stores, but when the Railroad storefront became available, they knew it was time to get back to running a chocolate shop—this time, with a twist.
“I studied art my whole entire career in college, as well as when I was very young; I was self-taught,” says Vivian, who paints under her maiden name: Vivian Mazzola. “I didn’t have my own gallery. I would sell out of galleries or street fairs, and that’s how I did my art. But then we united, and I said, ‘Well, this is perfect!’ Now I have my own gallery and our shop.”
And so, Sweet Art was born. The narrow customer space inside (just wide enough to sidle past another person who’s waffling over what to order) is flanked on the right by refrigerated display cases housing all manner of chocolate truffles, caramels, and shaped treats. On the left and on the wall behind the case, Vivian’s paintings hang in a range of sizes and styles, grouped by subject matter.
Photograph by Anne Godenham
“I do go through phases,” Vivian says, smiling at her artwork from behind the counter. “Everything else that is a landscape of sorts is something I’ve been to or seen. And all my flowers are from either my garden or from the farmer’s market. And then I have a playful side that I just fool around with, little playful things…they’re like fantasy things.”
And Vivian’s creativity isn’t limited only to the art on the walls. When I ask if the Hello Kitty shaped krispie treats in the case were her idea, she smiles.
“I do all the inventing of flavors and this and that…he came on board with fudge and toffee and turtles, old fashioned [classics]…all the cutesy little artsy things, that’s all me.”
The partnership is clearly a successful one, as 26 years in business and plenty of satisfied customers can attest. Count me among the latter: I bought a milk chocolate pig for my son, who devoured it so fast I barely got an ear nibble and shared a Salty Dog caramel with my husband. I also shared the dried mango dipped in white chocolate and sprinkled with Tajín seasoning, but it was so good I wished I’d kept it to myself.
The Hruskas have recently begun hiring and training staff to help them with every aspect of the business, including making the chocolates—as Vivian says, “this is a family business, and the family does everything.” They’re hopeful that one of their mentees will eventually want to join them in running the business. 1335 Railroad Ave., Bellingham, 360.714.1331
