Twenty Degrees Chocolates, the artisan chocolatier in South End’s Design Center as well as in Myers Park wine shop Petit Philippe, will cease production at the end of the month. The chocolate shop has been growing in online and in-person sales, and had plans to expand into a new space with Petit Philippe, which Casey Hickey owns with her husband, Mark Meissner. While the wine shop will still relocate to the larger space near Park Road Shopping Center, the chocolate shop will not. We spoke with Hickey to learn more about her decision to shut down Twenty Degrees Chocolate, and what her future holds. (Interview edited for clarity and brevity.)

Unpretentious Palate: Was there a specific moment when you made the decision to close Twenty Degrees Chocolate, or has it been a slow journey toward that decision?

Casey Hickey: A few years ago, I was diagnosed with arthritis in my work hand. I was able to do some things to keep it at bay to a degree, but it’s definitely progressed. Some of that’s heredity, but it’s also common for women in my age bracket. And then you add to it the repetitive nature of my work and the piping — all the things that we do that are very repetitive. It had begun to really get a lot worse. That was one of the things that started to sit in the back of my head: how much longer does my body have the ability to do this? And do I want to do this until I kind of cripple myself?

There was a point at which that was more like a five-year retirement thought on the horizon. And then, to be honest, what really crystallized it was good fortune. We were so overwhelmingly busy last fall and our season extends a lot longer than your typical retail because of Valentine’s and Easter and Mother’s Day. Recognizing what I went through to get through that — how much time away from the family, the physical demands and the emotional and mental demands on me to go through that at a time of the year when normally we’re with our families. Coming out of that season, I looked at Mark and said, ‘I don’t know how much longer I can do this.’ And I don’t do things halfway.

With the construction delays on the building, it kind of just all merged together. I can’t say it was singular, but it was precipitated. After the good fortune of the growth that we finally saw at the boutique, trying to do that with the chocolate sales and e-commerce and trying to be a mom and not be a complete shrew at home.

Looking at that building very critically, not just how have we always done things, but what is the right thing for us to position ourselves for growth in this business and one day someday for future sale. We never anticipated passing this down to our children. The idea of building a very resource-intensive kitchen into a building that I might only physically and mentally be able to handle for another year or two just seemed a little bit nutty. The likelihood of finding a future buyer that is a passionate wine merchant who happens to have a chef and chocolate-centric partner is slim to none. And so it was a combination of evaluating all of those things and counting the years. I’ve got three years with my eldest and five with my youngest before they’re off to college. And these are the years that their decisions, their choices, their judgment gets far more profound as to the consequences of those things. I just really wanted to be more present for that, and I could not give the business what I know I am inclined to give it.

UP: The new space was going to be very much a joint venture. Will you find a new chocolate partner? Or will it be purely wine going forward?

CH: The emphasis will be on wine and potential verticals that are really closely aligned with that. The wine will always be the lead, but we are open to and are exploring potential ancillary things that would be much more closely aligned with that than the chocolate really ever was. The chocolate made sense because of who we were. We’re just spending some time now looking at what’s the best model for us operationally today and into the future.

I will be supportive on the operational side. It wouldn’t necessarily be on the food related side, but we’ll continue to do tastings that will involve food, will hopefully be able to bring in guest chefs to do some things there. That will help free up Mark to really do what he does best, which is continue to hone his wine knowledge and expertise, sell wine, and manage our customer relationships and grow those relationships.

UP: Should people who are fans of your chocolate expect to see you back for special events or pop-ups?

Casey Hickey: I don’t. Truthfully, I don’t. No one has asked me that, and I haven’t really given it any thought to be honest. I feel like this is a true closure and one that I feel terrific about. I think that we hit our creative stride in the last year. I’m not going to say that I won’t have some crazy itch in six months and be like, ‘Oh, I miss it,’ but I don’t see it being on the chocolate front. I might come in and do a little guest pastry randomly here and there, but it’s not really something that we’re building into it. I need to rest. I need to be really still and quiet, which I’ve not given myself the opportunity to do in a decade. And I need to really listen and and I need to be there for those boys. I’m just so delighted to be able to just hang out with my kids and get to really know them. Talk with them. They’ve both been thrilled with this decision. And it’s amazing already, the change in and how we’re relating to one another, which is really heartening. Really, really heartening.

UP: The last three years have been extremely difficult for everybody, especially those in hospitality. Did the pandemic exacerbate this decision in any way? Or was it more just a matter of everything else?

Casey Hickey: You know, I probably can’t honestly say that it did not. What I will say is that the pandemic and even what preceded that, I think you and I had talked about some challenges even before I opened [the South End shop] with some construction issues. Whenever you occupy an existing building and you’re in an adaptive reuse project, there are surprises that can be really brutal to contend with.

I feel like the moment I opened in December of 2019, I was like that battered marathon runner, staggering at the end of the line and some fellow athlete drags them across the finish line. We were really marching along and starting to see some quick growth, then got hit with the pandemic three months later. And I won’t say that that’s the cause, but certainly it depleted me and maybe it made me less resilient.

And here we are. We’re in a phase where we were hitting all of our targets and our growth is on a really strong trajectory right now. It might seem to some as a really crazy time to do this, but some type of work will always be there for me and my children will not be home for much longer. And so I would say yes. It contributed to a sense of exhaustion and maybe a physical inability to weather the newfound, wonderful busyness that we were experiencing. Even those things were super positive. I just didn’t have it in me. I’m turning 55 in about six weeks. And I don’t need to work physically like I have been. I just don’t feel the need to do that to myself.

UP: Do you plan on trying to sell the business like the brand at all or just the equipment where it is like all the assets?

Casey Hickey: And we looked at that long and hard. I thought about trying to sell it, but I felt that in doing so, I would have to keep operating it at that level, which I was not willing to do. I was not willing to put through another season. So I’ll probably attempt to sell the equipment and I have actually had some people contact me about some consulting on the business of chocolate. I don’t know. If someone came and offered me money for the brand, I would certainly be open to the conversation. But I just knew that I wasn’t going to list it myself and then keep running it at that same pace. So right now the plan is to sell equipment.

UP: Did you pop open a special bottle of wine to celebrate this day?

Casey Hickey: When Mark and I shared the news with his parents, who live here in Charlotte, I think it was Domaine Ott rosé. It’s one of our favorite rosés. We actually got to visit it last summer when we took the boys to the south of France. And it’s definitely a special bottle of rosé. And I think that might have been what we toasted when we shared the news with them. They’ve been just incredibly supportive of us, so it was a it was a really joyful night.

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