chocolate memories.
having grown up in chicago, there are many places that i have special memories about and miss. one of those places that i will never get to experience again is Marshall Fields, the elegant and magical department store that covered an entire city block on state street. (of course there were many branches of the store all over the city and the suburbs, but the state street store is the landmark!)
i remember my mom calling me out sick from school in junior high to go christmas shopping there. the store was sooo huge! it was amazing just wandering around! we would have lunch in the beautiful Walnut Room - i can still smell the soup wafting through the air ...
my mom would always get two of the yearly christmas mugs. everything about fields felt glamorous! they even wrapped your gifts in beautiful boxes (you would keep these sturdy boxes forever!) and when we would leave, we would walk around the whole store and look at the beautiful windows. it was magical!
another memory of fields is their house chocolate, Frango. mmmmm...... little bites of chocolate-minty lovleyness! Frango's used to be made in Chicago (on the 13th floor the marshal field's state street store). it was a sad day when it was announced that Frango would relocate their kitchens. the demand was just too high to accomodate the old factory. the new production site would be in Pennsylvania. Mayor daily of chicago was upset and wanted the chocolates made by a local chicago chocolatier.
the final straw and the demise of a wonderful era was when marshal fields was bought out by federated department stores - aka the horrid Macy's. fields is now called "Macy's on State Street". Horrible!!!! makes me sick. (and i'm not the only one who thinks this! look here!
back to what started me on this trip down memory lane.
shane and i were browsing through macy's last night when i saw a familiar site at the cash wrap. stacks of the dark green boxes!
are those frango's, in new york??? i forgot for a moment about the acquisition and the candies seemed out of place. then it all made sense to me.
it was exciting to be able to purchase the candies that i would always bring back from chicago on visits home, but something didn't seem right. it was a little out of place. this elegant candy next to a messy, dirty, uninspiring cash wrap at macy's. it just lost something.
i bought the chocolates anyways!
they didn't taste exactly the same, a little dry, but they were still nice.
marshall field's and frango, you will always be in my heart!
i remember my mom calling me out sick from school in junior high to go christmas shopping there. the store was sooo huge! it was amazing just wandering around! we would have lunch in the beautiful Walnut Room - i can still smell the soup wafting through the air ...
my mom would always get two of the yearly christmas mugs. everything about fields felt glamorous! they even wrapped your gifts in beautiful boxes (you would keep these sturdy boxes forever!) and when we would leave, we would walk around the whole store and look at the beautiful windows. it was magical!
another memory of fields is their house chocolate, Frango. mmmmm...... little bites of chocolate-minty lovleyness! Frango's used to be made in Chicago (on the 13th floor the marshal field's state street store). it was a sad day when it was announced that Frango would relocate their kitchens. the demand was just too high to accomodate the old factory. the new production site would be in Pennsylvania. Mayor daily of chicago was upset and wanted the chocolates made by a local chicago chocolatier.
the final straw and the demise of a wonderful era was when marshal fields was bought out by federated department stores - aka the horrid Macy's. fields is now called "Macy's on State Street". Horrible!!!! makes me sick. (and i'm not the only one who thinks this! look here!
back to what started me on this trip down memory lane.
shane and i were browsing through macy's last night when i saw a familiar site at the cash wrap. stacks of the dark green boxes!
are those frango's, in new york??? i forgot for a moment about the acquisition and the candies seemed out of place. then it all made sense to me.
it was exciting to be able to purchase the candies that i would always bring back from chicago on visits home, but something didn't seem right. it was a little out of place. this elegant candy next to a messy, dirty, uninspiring cash wrap at macy's. it just lost something.
i bought the chocolates anyways!
they didn't taste exactly the same, a little dry, but they were still nice.
marshall field's and frango, you will always be in my heart!
Labels: food and drinks
posted by molly at
1/31/2007
7 Comments:
Gee Molly - it brought a little tear to my eye to know that you remember the good times we had together and you actually had fun - so did I, so did I!! Sometimes I sure wish you were little again!
yes, it'd be easier if you were little to put you in the frango mint box!
oooh i remember visiting the marshall fields and adoring the frango mint!! i hate macys. i don't know what possessed me, but i happened to be walking by herald square yesterday and decided to go into the macys to check out the home section. i literally left in 5 minutes. that place is so disorganized i can't believe it. were you there or one in yonkers??
UGH!! I hate Macy's!! They're the devil that took my Marshall Fields away. I won't even set foot in their store--it's my personal boycott!
I miss Frango's too!
Molly,
This is horrible. I remember traveling 2-2.5 hours to Chicago just to see Fields Christmas windows when I was younger. It was always so magical.
mom! of course i remember! :)
i can see that we all are united againtst macy's (or at least for marsall fields!)
Of course, everyone should join Chicago and boycott that awful store, but... if you want a Frango's fix, stop by any Macy's. Word is that not many people are even buying those and the boxes are marked down 75%. Not just the seasonal ones, but also the regular ones in the green boxes (which somehow miraculously avoided turning red like everything else). How pathetic. Macy's can't even sell Frango's.
another vote for macy's demise. i hate that place. i'm a transplant to chicago post augie years, and i loved that store.
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