In possibly the most fluid change of ownership for any Santa Barbara business in recent years, Chocolate Maya is now owned by Willow Sprout, who started working at the chocolatier and bonbon boutique more than 15 years ago.
“That’s why all the customers know me,” said Sprout last month, as she hustled in the kitchen to prepare for the Valentine’s Day rush. “Now I just have to do all the paperwork, too. It just added more to my job description.”
The Santa Barbara–born, East Coast–raised Sprout was back in town as a City College student when she was hired by Maya Schoop-Rutten, a restaurateur originally from Switzerland who opened the shop near the corner of State and Gutierrez in 2007. The most critical part of Sprout’s tenure happened about a decade ago, when Schoop-Rutten began teaching her how to make the nearly dozens of truffles that are Chocolate Maya’s primary product.