His name may be Charlie, but he is Burnaby’s Willy Wonka.
Charlie Sigvardsen has been running Charlie’s Chocolate Factory on Canada Way off Boundary Road for almost 43 years. The name of the store, obviously, is a take on the 1964 Roald Dahl children’s book – but it didn’t start out that way.
“When we started, we opened the store in Gastown, and right across the street was the Old Spaghetti Factory,” he said. “We were going to call ours the Chocolate Factory, and the government wouldn’t register it. They said that was too common a name.
“Somebody I was working with said, ‘My boys are reading a book at school about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Your name’s Charlie – why not call it Charlie’s Chocolate Factory?’”
Sigvardsen essentially found his golden ticket, having run his own chocolate shop for more than four decades. He uses imported Callebaut chocolate from Belgium – because “Europeans know how to make good chocolate” – but he’s also known for molding chocolate into all kinds of shapes and designs.
He has chocolate soccer balls, iPhones, even a Viagra-shaped chocolate. He’s even made a 193-pound chocolate heart for the Variety Club.
That type of ingenuity comes out at Christmas, with chocolate snowmen, wreaths, Christmas lights and candy canes all over the store. New to their Christmas lineup this year is a chocolate reindeer, made with a chocolate-dipped marshmallow and chocolate-covered pretzels.
“Ellen, our granddaughter, she developed that this year,” said Sigvardsen. “It’s been very popular.”
And keeping with the store’s own tradition, they recently had their annual giveaway of a chocolate Santa, worth $195.
At 84, Sigvardsen is certainly old enough to retire, but it seems he doesn’t want to. He’s a kid at heart in a candy store – why would he want to leave?
“I explain to the children that come in that I feel I’m the lucky Charlie who ended up with the chocolate factory,” he said. “I do it now to have fun at it.”
