Micelli Interviews Ghirardelli Chocolate

In 1852, a young Italian confectioner named Domingo Ghirardelli opened a small shop at the corner of Kearny and Washington Streets in San Francisco. He'd already lost one store to fire and another to the chaos of the Gold Rush. What he built next would survive an earthquake, outlast two centuries, and become the oldest continuously operating chocolate manufacturer in America.

Next year, that company turns 175. And while the name Ghirardelli conjures images of a historic waterfront square, a glowing landmark sign, and the SQUARES^® chocolates found in nearly every U.S. grocery aisle, the brand's newest chapters are being written somewhere a little less expected: inside its Chocolate & Ice Cream Shops, where a sundae can become a stage for chocolate storytelling.

We spoke with Mari McGrath, Senior Manager of Product Development & Inventory for Ghirardelli's Restaurant & Retail team, about building a career inside an American chocolate institution, why nostalgia is its own kind of innovation, and how a giant chocolate gorilla ended up on top of a sundae in Manhattan.

A Career Built Inside the Chocolate Shop

Mari didn't start out in chocolate. She came to Ghirardelli by way of the gift and housewares industry, where she worked as a buyer before joining the company more than ten years ago as an Assistant Product Manager focused on gifting.

"I quickly learned that chocolate comes with its own unique complexities," she says, "from shelf life and ingredient sourcing to flavor trends and seasonality." Over time, her role expanded into ice cream sundae innovation—now one of her favorite parts of the job—before growing into her current position overseeing product development and inventory across the full lifecycle, from initial concept through execution.

Her academic background, somewhat unexpectedly, is in psychology and product design. She points to The Art of Innovation by IDEO's Tom Kelley and Don Norman's The Design of Everyday Things as early influences on how she thinks about a guest's experience with a product. "When product development is what you love, you never stop absorbing what's around you," she says. "Even a trip to the grocery store can spark ideas."

Chocolate as a Storytelling Tool

Ask Mari for a favorite example of what excites her about the job, and she doesn't point to a flavor. She points to a location.

When Ghirardelli was developing an exclusive sundae for its Empire State Building shop, the team wanted more than a new flavor—they wanted something that felt distinctly New York. Every Ghirardelli sundae already includes a signature Square, but this one needed a visual centerpiece that celebrated the location itself.

That idea led the team to custom chocolate molds, and eventually to the Ghirardelli Kong Sundae—a playful chocolatey gorilla perched on top, brought to life alongside Micelli. "It's a product that resonates with both chocolate lovers and tourists," Mari says, "and it perfectly demonstrates how chocolate can be used not only as an ingredient, but as a storytelling tool."

Five Values, One Purpose

Ghirardelli's product decisions, Mari says, run through five core values: Excellence, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Responsibility, and Collaboration—all in service of a single purpose the company states plainly: to "make life a bite better."

For the Restaurant & Retail division specifically, that means looking past the dessert itself. "We focus on not only delighting guests and showcasing our chocolate, but also on supporting our cross-functional teams," she explains. "That means asking: can we simplify processes? Improve training? Ensure smooth execution at store level?" Delivering a hot fudge sundae the same way, every time, at every location across the country, she says, takes a large and coordinated effort.

Protecting the Core While Evolving Around It

Few brands carry as much nostalgia as Ghirardelli. Guests return to Ghirardelli Square or Disney Springs decades after visiting as children, now bringing their own kids along for the same Hot Fudge Sundae. That inherited loyalty shapes how the team innovates. "Balancing innovation with expectation is really about protecting our core while evolving around it," Mari says.

That balancing act played out in real time with one of the team's most talked-about creations: the Dubai Style Chocolate Sundae. Riding the viral pistachio-and-kunafa chocolate trend that's swept dessert menus everywhere, Mari and Product Manager Alessandro Bertoncello built the first prototype at a holiday party—grinding their own pistachios in a blender and hand-cutting phyllo dough on the stove. "It was wild," she recalls. "Everyone at the party was thrilled to get an insight into what it's like to develop a new sundae."

From there, the team worked with Ghirardelli's R&D group to develop a pistachio-and-katafi filling suited to production at scale, partnering with colleagues at Lindt to build an entirely new manufacturing process. The sundae has since expanded into a Dubai Style Chocolate Strawberry Bliss variation. "It's changed how we think about innovation," Mari says, "and expanded what we know is possible in our sundae space."

A Partnership Built for Speed

The Kong Sundae marked the first time Ghirardelli's Restaurant & Retail team built a custom mold with Micelli—and it didn't take long to see where else the idea could go.

"Micelli has been an outstanding partner, particularly when it comes to helping us bring creative ideas to life quickly," Mari says. Since the Kong Sundae, the two companies have developed custom molded pieces for Ghirardelli's Super Bowl Fan Zone activation and, most recently, a soccer ball design tied to World Cup-inspired offerings.

The bigger shift has been speed. Developing a new sundae concept, Mari says, can typically take more than a year. "Working with Micelli has helped accelerate that process significantly, allowing us to move from concept to execution in a matter of months while maintaining the quality and visual impact our guests expect."

The Spreadsheet Behind the Sundae

It's easy to assume a job like Mari's is mostly tastings and creative brainstorms. She's quick to correct the record. "There's actually a tremendous amount of planning, coordination, and yes, spreadsheets, involved," she says. "Keeping everyone organized and following the same KPIs means making sure our processes are solid and help move development forward."

Presentation carries its own kind of pressure, too. "We eat with our eyes first, and our guests love sharing their food on social media," Mari says—which means a sundae has to look just as good arriving at a guest's table as it does in a professional photograph. Much of that credit belongs to Ghirardelli's marketing team, whose photography sets the standard every store is trained to match. "They work so hard on making sure the photographs are our best asset," Mari says. Ghirardelli's operations team then trains every store down to granular detail, from the angle of the SQUARE^® on top of the sundae to the way ice cream is scooped into the cup, so the experience holds up consistently, visit after visit.

Ghirardelli sources its cocoa through the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program and other responsible sourcing standards, and the team has worked in recent years to shift toward all-natural coloring in ingredients like sprinkles and to make packaging more recyclable. "Small changes like that matter," Mari says. "They show that sustainability and guest experience can go hand in hand."

175 Years and Counting

Next year marks Ghirardelli's 175th anniversary—a milestone for a company that has, by most accounts, been making chocolate in America longer than anyone else. It's a lineage that runs from Domenico Ghirardelli's original Gold Rush-era storefront, through the 1906 earthquake that left the company's plant untouched while much of San Francisco burned, to the landmark waterfront square that still bears the family name.

"As the longest continuously operating chocolate manufacturer in the US, we're excited to celebrate our history and where we're headed next," Mari says, pointing to new retail and sundae launches planned in support of the anniversary.

Asked what she'd want people to say about the brand fifty years from now, she circles back to the guests who keep coming back. "I've seen guests who first visited us as children come back and share a Hot Fudge Sundae with their own kids or grandkids. There's a moment of recognition and genuine joy when something they remember so vividly comes to life again." Her hope is simple: that Ghirardelli keeps creating those moments—"honoring our heritage without ever becoming static or predictable."

Advice for the Next Generation

For anyone hoping to break into the chocolate business, Mari's advice has less to do with flavor and more to do with range. "Learn as much as you can about every part of the business," she says. "Whether you're focused on product development, operations, marketing, or sourcing, understanding how different teams work together will make you a stronger collaborator and a better problem solver."

Her second piece of advice: stay curious, and don't stop there. "It's important to keep an eye on trends and emerging consumer preferences, but it's equally important to understand how to execute those ideas successfully. Innovation only creates value when it can be delivered consistently and at a high level of quality."

And above all: "Invest in relationships. This industry is built on collaboration, and some of the most successful projects come from strong partnerships. Those relationships often become just as valuable as the products themselves."

For The Love of Making Chocolate is proud to spotlight brands like Ghirardelli—where 175 years of history keeps finding new reasons to reinvent itself, one sundae at a time.