Restaurant Information

CHOC·O·PAIN Owner, Clémence Danko, is a French native who moved with her husband to Hoboken, NJ, in 2009. After arriving in NJ from France, they were hard-pressed to find a fresh croissant or a good baguette West of the Hudson River. This sparked Clemence’s entrepreneurial spirit and decision to pursue her passion for French food and culture, so she left her pharmaceutical career behind and spent the next year intensely studying at New York City’s most renowned culinary schools and developing her business plan. In January 2012, she opened CHOC·O·PAIN and Hoboken had its very first French bakery and café. Just one year later, in March 2013, CHOC·O·PAIN opened its’ second location, this time bringing the French lifestyle experience to Jersey City locals. ​

Clemence is guided by her passion for simple traditional French food, in combination with her strong belief that cooking should be based on using only the highest quality and freshest, local-when-possible ingredients. In France, épiceries are small neighborhood shops that sell basic groceries along with specialty items. CHOC·O·PAIN ’s épicerie brings this old-fashioned “corner store” charm to the café, with a small but carefully curated assortment of hard-to-find French specialty items and cooking ingredients such as French candies and artisanal chocolate, spices, mustards, salts, French sugar cubes, local Honey and Alain Milliat jams.