Chocolatier Dumon occupies a 17th-century gabled building on one of Bruges's central squares — the crow-stepped orange tile roof and red awning are the shopfront's signature. The Dumon family has been making chocolate in Bruges since 1992, working without industrial processing and with Belgian couverture sourced directly: the pralines, ganaches, and truffles are made in small batches in the workshop behind the shop. The display cases are restrained — two rows of chocolate, named by flavour rather than by elaborate description. The box format is the correct way to carry them out; the loose selection is the correct way to eat them here. Bruges has a saturated chocolate retail market; Dumon is one of the few that operates without concession to the tourist economy's preference for volume over quality.
Historisch Centrum, Bruges, Belgium