LOCAL TREASURES: K.C. Lynn's Chocolates, Coffees & Confections

K.C. Lynn's Storefront

Update: K.C. Lynn's has gone out of business.  They had a good run while it lasted!

We all have times in our lives when we are forced to re-evaluate what it is we want to do with our lives, where we are no longer satisfied with the direction our choices are taking us.  What is that all-important something that will consumer our daily comings and goings—that thing which will leave us feeling fulfilled and tired instead empty and exhausted?  This was the case for Ken Spence, former restaurant manager and Moore, Oklahoma native who had just broken his leg.  It took him nearly a year, from what Jeri (his wife) tells me, to finally get back to business as usual.

During the time he could not work, a nagging desire to do something different awakened in the back of his mind.  (Apparently, you think a bunch when you cannot get around much!)  In short, Ken went back to school to learn to make pastries and discovered his "love affair" for making chocolate... probably much to Jeri's liking!  The grind of the retail restaurant industry was probably wearing on him, as is the case in any service-centric industry: only the passionate survive.  The brainchild of his passion for chocolate is K.C. Lynn's Chocolates, Coffees & Confections in his hometown of Moore, and is the merger several very tasty media.  Open only since June 2010, business is just now taking off for them thanks to shrewd advertising on social networking sites (read: Groupon) and in local publications.

Chocolate everywhere!

Their store front is conveniently located next door to a florist, just in case you need to suck up to your significant other thanks to that fight you had last night.  (Location, location, location!)  The bright, girly lime-and-sky blue color palate greets you at the door and segues inside on the walls, plates, and other accessories.  It is evident that they are just starting up because some of the furnishings appear to be secondhand.  Sweets and treats on top of and inside confection cases jeer at your New Year's resolution to lose weight.  Truffles, chocolate bars, bonbons, brittle, and toffee are seemingly everywhere, and my willpower is weakening by the moment like Superman's strength is within a mile of Kryptonite!

B&B Dancing Goats espresso...

Somehow settling on just one truffle (a 70% cacao truffle), I ordered a doppio to accompany it.  Indeed the coffee is just that: an accompaniment.  Their coffee is from Batdorf & Bronson out of Olympia, WA, well known to many from that area for their Dancing Goats espresso.  Honestly, I could not get a good read on the espresso's whole profile for a few reasons.  What I could detect was a syrupy base with a nuttiness on the side, which is confirmed by Batdorf's own description.  The Batdorf was a great compliment to the dark chocolate truffle I inhaled.

Coffee menu at K.C. Lynn's

K.C. Lynn's definitely focuses primarily on their chocolate and secondly on their coffee, from all appearances.  The coffee, when I was there, was not ground to order, but ground a few hours previously.  I would like to see the coffee ground freshly quite simply to give clients the best that Batdorf can offer.  Still, a few hours age is not as "atrocious" as I have seen or experienced in some places, where coffee has been ground days(!) in advance, like your at your Aunt Berta's house.  I felt that the espresso fell flat today because of this crucial oversight.  Their single-group Rio hangs out on the back counter with a Gaggia grinder to its flank—not a bad setup for a place that serves the occasional espresso or latte.

If you ever get the hankering for something special, handmade, or indulgent, K.C. Lynn's is a good mom-and-pop's Main-St.-USA shop to experience.  Located less than a block from Moore High School at the southwest corner of E. Main St and S. Eastern Ave, it's an easy detour off of I-35 (Google Map).  I look forward to seeing how this business evolves and improves over the coming years, because I feel this shop has potential to corner the specialty sweets market in Moore if they play their cards well.