Giovanni's Adds Sweet Treat to Taste of Dormont

Every booth at Saturday's Taste of Dormont presented the foods and wines that highlighted the annual event, but one local vendor was drawing a crowd with a new sweet treat.

Giovanni's Pizza and Pasta began making and selling chocolate this summer, and the pizza shop's Taste of Dormont tables were lined with colorful varieties of chocolate-coated treats.

It's a new venture for the shop that has mainly sold pizza and sandwiches since it opened six years ago. But owner Fethi Turan said making chocolate was something he wanted to try.

"One day I woke up and just decided to make chocolate," Turan said. "That's really how it happened. I said to myself, 'I feel like this is something I want to try.'"

He is a self-taught chocolatier, and said he started by reading nearly a dozen books about the art of chocolate making. He said he went to chocolate shows around the country and talked to the makers. Then he practiced making and crafting the candy himself, and introduced it into his store over the summer.

Turan hasn't been selling chocolate for long, but he said if that part of his business really takes off, he's happy that the sweet product will be associated with Dormont.

"Good food and good service come first, then you think about what people are really going to know you for," Turan said. "This is something that could take off and if that happens, I'm proud to have my business in Dormont. This is a thing that makes people happy, and I'm happy to bring this to Dormont."

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