Forget about frying an egg on the sidewalk in Tucson’s punishing summer heat.
How about melting chocolate in a chocolate factory?
That’s not exactly what’s been happening at the 6-week-old Monsoon Chocolate, 234 E. 22nd St., at South Fourth Avenue. But the owner used a photo of a melting chocolate bar in Facebook and Instagram posts as a metaphor for the steamy conditions in his dining room, which is cooled with a swamp cooler.
After enduring the recent string of 100-plus-degree days, owner Adam Krantz said Tuesday he was closing the cafe for the “foreseeable” future. Monsoon will continue producing chocolate in its air-conditioned backroom production area and kitchen, he said.
“Our dining room is way above OSHA recommended working temperatures,” Krantz said. “We just can’t do that to our employees anymore. It’s unreasonable to us to expect our guests to endure that.”
Monsoon Chocolate Factory & Cafe, currently closed due to high temperatures and climate control issues, 234 E. 22nd. St. on June 26, 2018.
Krantz said he is in talks with his landlord, Peach Properties, and hopes to resolve the problem. Patricia Schwabe, who is a principal in Peach with her husband, Ron, said she would be happy “to sit down and try to figure out how to continue to help” Krantz.
“We believe in his project. We believe he’s a talented person, and we continue to be excited about that location,” she said.
Krantz opened Monsoon Chocolate in early May, crafting artisan chocolates and serving a limited breakfast and lunch menu at the cafe.
“We love this neighborhood; we love this building,” he said Tuesday. “Any historic building will come with inherent challenges, and we’ve really traversed those challenges. We have put an incredible amount of work into this space and the last thing we want to do is walk away from that.”
Tuesday’s hiatus announcement came two days after Monsoon Chocolate was forced to close early on Sunday due to “climate issues” in the dining room, according to the shop’s social media posts. The post was accompanied by a picture of a bar of chocolate melting on what looked like the walkway.
The historic building was home for years to La Buena Cocina y Tortilleria. Monsoon Chocolate is one of the first of several tenants for the building, which is central to Peach’s plans for commercial and residential projects in the South Fourth Avenue/East 22nd Street area.
