In 1918, in the Black Forest village of Aichhalden, Germany, Richard Haas started Café Conditorei Haas. Ninety-two years later, Richard’s great-grandson, Thomas Haas, has continued down his great-grandfather’s path as a fourth generation pastry chef. As co-owner of Thomas Haas Chocolates & Patisserie with his wife Lisa, Thomas has never questioned his choice to follow in his family’s footsteps. “I started at 16 years old and I never looked back or questioned if this was the right thing to do,” he says. “If you give your best everyday, all will fall in place.”
Thomas and Lisa’s efforts have definitely paid off. Along with a plethora of awards in the past, Thomas Hass Chocolates has recently been voted as one of the Top Ten Chocolatiers in North America. Although the company has been given much acclaim, Thomas has never strived to have Thomas Haas Chocolates be a huge name in the media. “We build our business one customer at a time, one employee at a time. One-hundred percent of our business is word of mouth,” Haas says.
With raw ingredients used to make handmade chocolates and truffles, their famous Sparkle cookie, delicate fruit jellies and more decadent treats, there hasn’t been much difficulty for Thomas Haas Chocolates to wrangle in the customers. Besides in-store purchases, Thomas Haas chocolate and cake creations has been requested for film premieres and sets. For the animated film “Up,” Thomas Haas was asked to re-produce the house from the film and it was driven to the studios in Los Angeles.
In addition to providing their products for film productions or events, Thomas Haas also creates handmade chocolate gift boxes and bars that can be customized with any image or logo. These customized chocolates could come in handy for a filmmaker that’s marketing their film or that’s looking for a present to show appreciation to the cast and crew after the film is wrapped. Whether it’s a personal purchase, gift or for an event, Thomas Haas Chocolates has an assortment of delectable chocolates and patisseries to choose from.
Mingle with TGIF Singles
By: Sarah Attalah
It’s Saturday night and after an hour of idle channel surfing, you remember that a new restaurant has just opened near your home. After getting ready in excitement, you grab your keys and head out the door. Just as you put the keys in the ignition, you decide to go back inside, remembering that you have no one to accompany you. In moments, such as these, there’s no need to skip out on life because of the anxiety of being alone in public places. TGIF Singles, a private social club for unattached men and women, is devoted to bringing people together to engage in exciting and entertaining social gatherings.
In 1987, owner Len Macht, founded TGIF, but the club didn’t initially begin as a business venture. “I was a workaholic,” he recalls. “I wanted to go out and do things. So I rounded up some others and started a small club, which expanded into a larger club, and it kept growing. Eventually someone was needed to run the show and so I started TGIF.” Currently, TGIF has around 500 members and each year there are over 500 scheduled events offered with an additional 50 spur-of-the-moment events to partake in.
From dinner dance functions to kayaking to trips to South America or China, TGIF allows people to be adventurous and join in activities that some people would miss out on if they didn’t have anyone to do them with. For filmmakers that have spent most of their life working without allowing much leisure time or for those that feel a need to find people to build lasting friendships with while participating in common hobbies, TGIF is the club to join.
