Elaine Hsieh displays some of EHChocolatier's confections.

By Elyse Andrews

Elaine Hsieh and Catharine Sweeney met when a mutual friend asked them to make her wedding cake, even though neither had ever made one before and they didn’t know each other. They found that they liked working together and that they enjoyed working with food, so several years later, Hsieh and  Sweeney decided to go into business together making chocolates.

Before taking the plunge, they started a chocolate club where they created chocolates and mailed them to testers to see which flavors people liked most and to iron out the logistical aspects of the business.

“Chocolate was what we liked to do,” Sweeney said. “But we had to see if we liked it enough and got along enough.”

They did, and EHChocolatier was born in the fall of 2010.

They started making chocolates for friends and family as holiday presents and always thought it would be nice to have a food business. But there is much more to what they do than just creating sweet treats.

“The chocolate part is big, but there are many aspects of it that are appealing,” Hsieh said.

There’s science and chemistry involved in crafting the chocolates, the ability to be creative in flavor development and the benefit of producing their chocolates in small batches, which allows them to source high-quality ingredients.

Almond and corn flake rochers with milk and dark chocolate.

“We love beautiful things,” Sweeney said. And that means no detail is too small for she and Hsieh to focus on. On a recent visit to their Somerville kitchen, they were putting together packaging for Mother’s Day bonbons with beautiful papers created by Paper Connection in Rhode Island.

While Hsieh did attend culinary school, she says that much of what she and Sweeney do now is self-taught. And they recently began teaching their techniques to others when they took on three interns to help with the orders they anticipate around the holidays.

Yes, they’re already thinking that far ahead.

“Now that we’ve been in business for one full year, we need to make some adjustments,” Sweeney said. “We had an unbelievable team of volunteers for the holidays. People are so generous with their time.”

“We couldn’t have done it without them,” Hsieh added.

For Mother’s Day, Hsieh and Sweeney are working on flavors like early grey, strawberry balsamic, lemon curd (made on the premises) and honey caramel with fleur de sel. In the past, they have created chocolates using lemongrass and Thai chiles, inspired by a friend’s signature dish.

When asked where she gets her inspiration, Sweeney said, “I’ve always cooked. I travel and I eat. We think about what food combinations we like.”

While they love experimenting with various flavor combinations, things don’t always go as planned. Hseih and Sweeney really wanted to make a curry chocolate, but the “frighteningly yellow” color scared them off and they’ve moved on to other things, like chai and lavender vanilla.

In addition to their website, EHChocolatier chocolates are currently available at the Somerville Winter Farmer’s Market at the Armory as well as in a few retail shops in the area. Hsieh and Sweeney hope to expand their retail presence locally and nationally, but they don’t have plans for a shop of their own — yet.

EHChocolatier will also be at Union Square’s new Swirl & Slice market this summer doing chocolate demonstrations and tastings.

“Every day is different,” Hsieh said. And right now, EHChocolatier is just taking it one sweet day at a time.

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The East Broadway Streetscape project, set to begin construction this summer, is expected to create a more pedestrian-friendly business district.

For Dan Fitzgerald, owner of East Somerville restaurant Casey’s, the idea of change can be tough.

“The older you get, you get a little more rattled with change,” he said.

As such, he had his trepidations about the East Broadway Streetscape project, which will come with at least a year of construction on Broadway. But, he said, he’s come around to the idea that the project will help turn the street into a shopping and dining destination.

Fitzgerald is one of several business owners preparing for the short-term pain of the project in hopes that it will provide long-term gains for all of East Somerville. The project, which will begin construction this summer, is meant to establish East Broadway as a pedestrian-friendly business district.

“We’re trying to give the sidewalks back to the pedestrians,” East Somerville Main Streets (ESMS) Director Carrie Dancy said last month.

The $8 million project – funded by state and federal transportation and economic development money – will run down Broadway from Autumn Street to the Boston border, expanding sidewalks on either end; cutting traffic lanes from two to one; adding bike lanes, benches and trees; and providing room for restaurants to feature outdoor seating.

But first will come a long construction. And while business owners like Fitzgerald look forward to a beautified Broadway, they know they’ll have to get through what figures to be a tough year.

Befekadu Defar, owner of Ethiopian restaurant Fasika, said he had no definitive plan to keep business strong during construction.

“We just have to try our best,” he said. “We’ll tell customers where to park and make sure they’re informed.”

Sean O’Connor of custom engraving shop Awards Unlimited spoke along similar lines, saying he would explain the process to customers as construction approached his business. However, as a business that people generally seek out rather than visit on a whim, he said he’s more worried about restaurants and businesses that rely on walk-in traffic than his own.

“You worry about how people will get to those businesses,” he said. “Hopefully [the project’s completion] will draw up business for them…It’ll be a tough go but ultimately I think it’ll be worth it.”

Fitzgerald and Defar echoed that cautious optimism.

“It’s a large improvement of the neighborhood but it might have some side effects,” Defar said. “I think it will definitely be worth it.”

“Hopefully it’s part of the neighborhood’s evolution,” Fitzgerald said, adding he would consider implementing outdoor seating following the completion of construction.

The Streetscape project is being implemented at a time of change for all of East Somerville, with a new park also set for development this summer and a new branding campaign, launched by ESMS’s in January.

Fitzgerald said the new branding, which included participation in ESMS’s Two for Tuesdays program offering two-for-one specials at area restaurants, has had an “amazing” effect on business. He’ll hope for more of the same from the area’s next changes.

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On Nov. 2, 2006, the 4-month-old Somerville Life Sciences Collaborative (SLSC) hosted a morning gala titled “Meet the Stem Cell Experts.” SLSC, consisting of members of Mayor Joe Curtatone’s administration, representatives of Tufts University, and Bedford Stem Cell Research (17 Herbert St.) director Ann Kiessling, saw the event as an opportunity to tout the city as an ideal growth spot for the thriving biotech industry.

Two internationally-known stem cell scientists addressed a buzzing crowd. Kiessling took advantage of the opportunity to tell both Somerville residents and industry aficionados about the work her small nonprofit was exploring in Davis Square. Curtatone pitched Somerville as perfectly dynamic, close enough to Boston and Cambridge to benefit from their life science and research bases yet independent enough to offer a unique urban character to any biotech company looking to call the city home. And Somerville, he said, wanted them to call it just that.

“We’re trying to capture and really evolve the potential of a life sciences industry here in Somerville,” he said.

At the time, in addition to Bedford, the city’s biotech base included Thermedical Inc. (35 Medford St.), which develops systems to assist in the treatment of cancer and heart disease, and Plectix Biosystems, which was not a biotech company itself but sold software to biotechs across the country. Cambridge’s Biogen Idec. also had some office space in the city limits. Today, little has changed in the landscape except that Plectix went out of business with the recession.

SLSC has gone in a similar direction. Kiessling says she and Curtatone haven’t spoken in “two or three years.” She was surprised to hear of Thermedical, as she’s repeatedly asked the city for a list of life science companies within the city limits, to no response. Though Bedford, whose lease was set to expire in March, has agreed to stay in Somerville for another three years, Kiessling doesn’t know if she’ll make the same decision in 2015.

Biotechs need other biotechs nearby in order to thrive, be it through shared research, shared equipment, or by simply attracting others of their kind. Cities, meanwhile, benefit from the increased property values – and thereby increased tax revenues – research and development space yields. Further, those high-end commercial taxes could be the key to relieving residents of their share of the tax levy burden, which increased 38 cents in Somerville this year to $13.09 per thousand dollars in assessed value.

Kiessling has been pushing for an expanded biotech industry in Somerville since those first SLSC meetings and, dismayed, she still doesn’t see it happening. “I can’t do this on my own,” she says.

Organic growth?

One floating theory is that the biotech industry will come to Somerville when it’s good and ready. State Rep. Denise Provost thinks that there’s only so much room for biotech in Cambridge, and if Somerville clears the space for those businesses, it stands to reason that they’ll eventually cross the city limits.

“There’s under-utilized land in the Brickbottom and Boynton Yards areas of the city that are going to be opened up,” she says. “They may not be right on the doorstep of MIT, but they are a strong continuation of an existing biotech area. It’s a logical expansion of East Cambridge.” The Inner Belt and Brickbottom neighborhoods have been identified by the Curtatone administration as spots for high-end development.

The City’s decision to terminate Waste Management’s (10 Poplar St.) lease, effective this coming October, is meant to stimulate commercial development in the area ahead of the Green Line extension stop planned for Washington Street.

The increased transit opportunities that the Green Line represents will also play a role. Chris Pirie recently earned his doctorate from MIT and his start-up clean chemistry company will move into lab space in Cambridge this year. Pirie says he never considered Somerville as an option, primarily because it did not offer easy public transit access. Similarly, Thermedical founder and president Michael Curley says the lack of train access is his only major complaint regarding his Somerville location, and Kiessling says one of Bedford’s advantages in Davis is the Red Line stop.

Assembly Row’s development figures to further factor into Somerville’s biotech development, at least in theory. Wig Zamore, a founding member of both Mystic View Task Force and Somerville Transportation Equity Parnership, can rattle off the reasons Assembly is well-suited to the research and development field. First, the Orange Line station will put Assembly within an easy commute of all seven major research institutions around Boston, as well as all of its hospitals. The waterfront and potential green space the area offers are also very attractive to these companies. But as Assembly Square’s big box stores and a movie theater set the early tone for the empty space, time will tell whether Assembly developers Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRIT) are suited for and committed to the high-end projects – office and lab space – biotech companies require.

“The foundational pieces are there,” says Zamore. “We need to continue to focus on the features of those high-employment buildings.”

Zamore speaks strongly of the opportunities Assembly represents for Somerville, but cautions that attracting high-tech companies is not as simple as build-it-and-they-will-come. “There are probably 50 cities in the United States positioned to compete like Somerville is,” he says. “But it’s not just there for the taking…You have to compete for it.”

City, state, developer

Representatives of the administration and FRIT say they have worked to lure biotechs to Somerville. The state’s capacity for influence appears fairly minimal.

“You have to be proactive,” says Curtatone. “You can’t just wait it out.” The mayor says he is open to any number of ways to lure biotechs to Somerville, from tax breaks for high-tech start-ups to zoning adjustments to campaigning for Green Line ground breaking. “We’ll do anything to make us more competitive,” he says.

City spokesman Tom Champion says the optimism the city and Bedford shared in 2006 is still alive on the administration’s end with the Green Line apparently inching closer to breaking ground and Assembly nearing further development. By Curtatone and Champion’s estimate, the city has positioned itself

to attract high-tech businesses like biotechs with the work it’s done since SLSC founded and subsequently folded. The legwork, they say, has been done. Soon it may be time to see results. FRIT’s Boston president Don Briggs, meanwhile, says Assembly could “absolutely” be a spot for biotechs. It won’t, however, be a spot for start-ups. Briggs does not foresee Assembly offering the kind of incubator space that could propel start-ups into real life science players, something Kiessling claims she had spoken with FRIT and Curtatone about in 2006.

Instead, FRIT hopes Assembly eventually attracts companies that have outgrown their start-up space in the urban core, be it Somerville or elsewhere, but do not want to move to the biotech friendly MetroWest. They are actively trying to court companies that have already made it big, Briggs says. Last summer, pharmaceutical giant Vertex strongly considered setting up in Assembly before deciding on the South Boston waterfront. That Vertex even considered a not-yet developed Assembly may be a good sign for its development as a biotech hotspot.

FRIT, however, has always focused on residential and retail space, and has little experience building for research and development. Briggs says FRIT is willing to form partnerships to develop this sort of space, or that it could learn to develop it on its own. However, he says, Assembly’s first phase will see further investment in residential and retail properties. Whether the base this provides will ultimately prove attractive to life science firms will remain to be seen. Briggs says he is betting that it will.

At the state level, Provost says, there’s not too much that can be done. Government-funded bodies like the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, which give grants to life science players across the state, rarely give to start-ups or even big business, but instead channel their resources into higher education.

Even if the legislature wanted to change the way these organizations operate, it couldn’t; they are considered quasi-autonomous from the government, protecting them from the political will. Provost says that continuing to work towards implementing the Green Line extension is the most tangible way the state can assist Somerville in developing its economic base, biotech or otherwise.

Somerville’s benefits

Indeed, Somerville seems to have plenty to offer the biotech industry. Thermedical’s Curley says he set up shop in the city because rent was more affordable than in other urban spots, but he’s found other benefits. Being located near MIT, Harvard and Tufts has helped Curley attract workers right out of school. He also says the city’s atmosphere is workplace friendly. “Somerville is very nice,” he says. “There are a lot of good places to eat or from which to cater lunches, which helps the work environment.”

Kiessling agrees; Davis’s restaurants and shops present a stark contrast, she says, to Kendall Square, which offers little in the way of social options for its legions of scientists.

That sentiment is shared by city hall. Curtatone even suggested that efforts to market Kendall as a spot to “live, work, eat, shop and play” may be directly deriven from his oft-recited refrain of Somerville as a “great place to live, work and play.” “They’re copying a great city,” he says. “Just as we’ve looked to Kendall to see how to create great industry. They’re finally looking to Somerville to see how to create exceptional neighborhoods.”

The difference, of course, is that Kendall is already packed with acres of high-value research and development property that bring Cambridge jobs and tax revenue. For Somerville to benefit in the same ways, it will need to play host to similar developments.

Ahead of the curve?

In April of 2007, Kiessling and city hall split the costs of a table at the BIO International Convention in Boston, hoping to lure companies to its pastures. They came back empty-handed, and Kiessling came back a bit empty in spirit as well. “Around that time,” she says, “people on the Board started asking me just what I was getting out of [the partnership].”

The mayor says the early partnership has helped position the city moving forward, but Bedford isn’t getting any younger. At worst, Bedford chose a poor home if it wanted to be in a biotech-rich community. At best, it’s ahead of the curve.

“We’re just happy they chose Somerville as a home,” Curtatone says. “There’s so many stories about companies like Bedford Stem Cell that started in Somerville and couldn’t stay here…We want to set the environment not to just get companies started in Somerville, but to grow them here.”

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Plenty of folks could be seen walking away scarfing down “cutie pies” which were available in cherry, blueberry and pecan and given to each person who successfully stated the first 10 digits of pi — 3.141592653.

Davis Square resident Kevin Harmon correctly recited 100 digits of pi which awarded him one large pie per season and a Petsi Pies pie server.

Kate Ellison, 8, said that she has been training for “three and a half years,” starting off with 30 digits in her first year. On Wednesday Kate recited 60 digits — 10 more than in 2011. She and her father, Glen, who handled 100 digits, came to Somerville from Newton to get in on the action.

Sheila Lee of Davis Square practiced nightly with her roommate, Nate Hardison, and sister, Sasha, who is visiting from San Francisco, to be one of a handful of participants who recalled 300 digits of pi for Petsi’s grand prize, which included the aforementioned prizes and a Tupelo gift card.

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BY ELYSE ANDREWS

For Wenzday Jane, work and life are inextricably intertwined. As the owner of Metro Pedal Power, Jane channels her belief in the benefits of bicycling and her passion for local, seasonal food into everything she does.

“Metro Pedal is the answer to the automobile-centric culture in the U.S.” Jane said. “We set out to show that bikes have a valid and useful place in the streets and that bikes have a lot to do with self-reliance.”

Billed as “Boston’s Human-Powered Delivery Service,” Metro Pedal has grown tremendously since it was founded in 2008. When the business started, Metro Pedal was delivering food baskets for one farm’s Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and now it has partnerships with nearly every farm in the area.

Jane knew the stress of working long hours and then rushing to her CSA pick-up, so she was eager to find a way to help more people participate in the local food culture.

“CSA home-delivery is the backbone of the business,” Jane said. “It can help busy people get involved in the CSA and get access to local food.”

It was this work that got Jane thinking about creating her own garden outside of the Metro Pedal offices near Union Square in Somerville, which actually used to be a Merlin bike factory in the 1980s and ’90s. She wanted to grow some food, but she also needed a place to go and unwind from the pressures of owning a small business.

“I like to take a break from work and put my hands in the dirt. It’s invigorating and relaxing,” Jane said.

What started as a few tomato plants in pots has now grown to include a greenhouse where Jane has grown spinach, arugula and cilantro during the winter as well as larger raised beds where broccoli, kale and salad mix grows in the summer. Jane’s urban farm also includes three chickens and a rooster, given to her by one of her farmer friends.

“I really like working with farmers,” Jane said. “We have a similar sensibility, do hard work and are in tune with the weather.”

Jane’s garden is fueled by compost that she makes in big blue bins, which contain food scraps from homes and businesses in the area. This is all part of the SoilCycle program, which Metro Pedal has partnered with Groundwork Somerville on.

Jane’s urban farm goes hand-in-hand with her philosophy that bikes enable self-reliance. Jane has always been into bikes, especially for utilitarian purposes, but really became passionate about the benefits of riding them when she started commuting to work on hers every day. She loved the mental and physical health benefits of daily exercise and the sense of control she got from getting around under her own power.

“Over the past four years or so, the bike community has coalesced,” Jane said. “It’s really encouraging to see more and more people out.”

Delivering food and collecting compost by bike isn’t always easy, but Jane says that riding in inclement weather and hauling heavy loads is worth it.

“When the opportunity came to be involved in this, it was the perfect thing,” Jane said. “You get the health benefits and the fun factor. It’s hard work, it’s tough, but you get such a rewarding feeling.”

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All three projects aim, in part, to rid East Somerville of its reputation as a spot for crime and poverty. The reputation developed in the 1970s and 1980s, and has lingered long past its expiration, Dancy said.

“Negative realities from 30 years ago have been driving people to outdated perceptions,” she said. “This is the neighborhood’s primary business district. People don’t come unless they have a reason to.”

The new branding was produced in tandem with Boston branding firm BrandAlign. Its tagline, which reads “Think Outside the Square,” encourages a positive perception of Broadway’s corridor-like structure. This contrasts with Somerville’s other major business districts, like Davis and Union squares.

The Streetscape project, meanwhile, will provide a more tangible change to the neighborhood. The $8 million project is being funded by federal and state transportation and economic development funds, and Community Development Block Grant funds. Final plans were approved in late January and were produced by Somerville’s Design Consultants, Inc. See the slideshow for details.

Finally, New Harris Park will give a new location to the original Harris Park. The state is providing a $500,000 Parkland Acquisitions and Renovations for Communities grant, and the city will spend about $280,000 to create the new park, according to Somerville Patch.

“It will be one of the most comprehensive and innovative parks the city has planned,” Dancy said.

The park will channel Somerville history some, with a toddler play area based on an auto assembly aesthetic, channeling the namesake of Assembly Square. And it will feature a slope in its center that the slide will be built on, a nod to one of the city’s nickname, the city of seven hills. Again, see the slides for more details on the new park.

With the park and the streetscape set to begin construction this summer, the East Broadway area seem poised to craft a new identity for East Somerville, independent of Assembly Row.

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Six months after acquiring the assets of Somerville-based car-sharing company iCar, Mint Cars On-Demand is ready to begin service in Davis Square.

Founded in New York in 2008, Mint allows members to rent cars for as little as one hour up to several days from locations in neighborhoods. The new location and vehicles will add to the company’s current Boston, Brookline, Cambridge and Somerville footprint (where they have a location at 90 Elm St.).

Mint CEO Richard Ull, who studied at Tufts University, said in a press release the new Davis Square location at 53 Day St. is part of Mint’s plan to position itself to compete with the cost of owning a car and other car sharing options.

“The addition of a Davis Square location not only provides Mint a great opportunity to serve this neighborhood,” Ull said, “It also gives area residents an economical and convenient alternative to owning their own cars and the freedom to go where they want, when they want.”

More information is available at www.drivemint.com.

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Is a modern mega-theatre exciting news given the old-favorite status of Davis Square’s Somerville Theatre or the sticky-floored adventure that is Harvard Square’s AMC Loews? Answer our yes/no poll, which you’ll at the top of our homepage, or leave a comment with your thoughts.

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Following up on the wildly successful Eat Outside the Square Foodie Crawl, East Broadway has introduced Two for Tuesdays. Participating restaurants offer a two for the price of one special every Tuesday until March 15, 2012. The specials vary by week, so ask for the details when you stop in. They are available from 4:00 – closing. This week the specials are:

Mt. Vernon Restaurant (14 Broadway): Pork chops or Baked schrod with salad, potato & vegetable for $20.99
Taco Loco (44 Broadway): Tacos
Los Paisanos Restaurant (62 Broadway): Pupusas, tortas, and burritos
Vinny’s Ristorante (76 Broadway): tba
Tapatio Mexican Grille (82 Broadway): Pupusas
Gauchao (102 Broadway): Desserts
Ola Café (112 Broadway): Ham & cheese croissant, medium coffee, and any pastry
Brasil Steakhouse (129 Broadway): 2 all-you-can-eat buffets (BBQ included) for $15.99
Taqueria Montecristo (146 Broadway): Enchiladas and tacos
Fasika Ethiopian Restaurant (145-147 Broadway): tba
Casey’s Tavern (173 Broadway): Appetizers
Maya Sol (179 Broadway): Tacos

Visit eastsomervillemainstreets.org for details on each week’s event.

Happy Eating!

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Participating businesses include:

• Artifaktori (22A College Ave)
• The Boston Shaker (69 Holland St)
• Buffalo Exchange (238 Elm St)
• Cameras Inc. (267 Elm St)
• Comicazi (407 Highland Ave)
• Dave’s Fresh Pasta (81 Holland St)
• Davis Squared (418 Highland Ave)
• Found (255 Elm St)
• Johnny D’s Uptown Restaurant & Music Club (17 Holland St)
• Kickass Cupcakes (378 Highland Ave)
• Magpie (416 Highland Ave)
• Suneri Boutique (67 Holland St)
• Sunshine Lucy’s (93 Holland St)
• When Pigs Fly Bakery (378 Highland Ave)

Some businesses will offer discounts that get progressively higher throughout the night. Those include the gift shop Davis Squared, the clothing resale shop Found, the women’s clothing store Suneri Boutique, and the handicrafts store Magpie. Discounts will range from roughly 5 to 60 percent, depending on the store and the time of night.

Davis Squared and Magpie are among the stores that will be providing free refreshments to shoppers. Other discounts and specials:

• Davis Squared will have a bargain table with pre-packed gift bags offered at a special rate.
• The Boston Shaker cocktail supply shop will offer complimentary beverages along with deals on merchandise.
• Comic and game store Comicazi will offer either a storewide discount or price cuts on selected items; at publication time, co-owner Michael Burke said he hadn’t decided exactly what the discounts would be, but he says: “There will definitely be something special happening.”
• Cameras Inc. will offer 15% off all stock except cameras. The discount applies to items like regular and digital picture frames, photo albums, memory cards, camera bags, and tripods.
• Magpie will have $5 t-shirt bin and other spot sales around the store.
• Suneri Boutique is holding a raffle and a silent auction; a portion of the evening’s sales and the proceeds from some auction items will be donated to help provide breast cancer treatments for Kate Kenworthy Rodrigues.

Dave’s Fresh Pasta will offer food samples, and the sampled foods will be available for purchase at a discount, according to owner David Jick. “We tend to lean toward local foods,” he says. Sampled foods will include Taza Chocolate (561 Windsor St), mozzarella from Fiore Di Nonno (also at 561 Windsor St), and cupcakes from The Chocolate Tarte (199C Highland Ave) — all Somerville businesses. Pickles from Boston-based Grillo’s will also be available. And, Jick says, “We’ll be pouring a couple of different wines — nothing local — and a local beer.”

To be sure of getting a taste, get to Dave’s before 11:00 p.m. Jick says he may close the store then instead of at midnight. And the vintage clothing shop Buffalo Exchange will close at or around 1o:oo p.m., so visit early if your plans include a stop there.

In addition to all the retail events, the car-sharing service Zipcar will have a  booth in Statue Park throughout the event. Thalia Tringo Real Estate (128 Willow Ave) will host an art opening, “Elements and Artifacts,” featuring photographs by T.L. Litt and food and drink from local eateries.

Midnight Madness is organized by Davis Area Resident/Business Initiative (DARBI).

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