Julienne “Jule” Roach owns Fairhope Chocolate in downtown Fairhope. This is her 9th year in business and she’s now in a new, larger location on Fairhope Avenue. Born in San Francisco, she lived on the West Coast until she was four years old when the family moved to Nicaragua, Oregon, Virginia, Washington DC, and later, Ethiopia. Her father worked with USAID and the World Bank helping to advance U.S. national security and economic prosperity throughout the world.

Jule graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in Cultural Anthropology and earned her master’s degree in Health Education and Promotion. When she and her husband, Dr. Ralph Buckley, a cardiologist, moved to Fairhope, she decided to go to culinary and pastry school. “I love being in the kitchen,” she says. “When I was eleven, I began cooking for my family. It’s an artistic medium and eventually, I decided to make a career out of it. Whether here or at home, the kitchen is my happy place.”

Between 2010 and 2014, Chef Jule, as she is called (“Nobody wants to hear “Chef Roach” in the kitchen!”), earned her associate culinary degree and subsequently her pastry degree at Coastal Community College in Fairhope. At the time she says, “There wasn’t anything like Fairhope Chocolate in downtown Fairhope. I felt I needed to do this.” 

The original name, Frenchman’s Corner of Fairhope, was a play on words of sorts because she opened in a small space in the Downtown French Quarter but also because when living in Culpepper, Virginia, she met a Frenchman who ran Frenchman’s Corner, a shop that exclusively sold Neuhaus of Belgium Chocolates. 

Soon after opening, Chef Jule changed the name to Fairhope Chocolate.  It is only one of a handful of stores in the United States which allows customers to pick individual pieces of Neuhaus Chocolate to make up a box of chocolates. She makes lots of other goodies too, like pralines, peanut brittle, bark, and Pecan Caramel delights that “look amazingly like turtles,” she says. 

Fairhope Chocolate uses very high-end, high-quality, mostly European couverture chocolate. This is chocolate made with real cocoa butter consisting of at least 30% cocoa and doesn’t have tropical oils or edible wax. This is an important distinction. 

Two years ago, Chef Jule spent time with an Italian chef learning to make authentic house-made gelato. “We needed something cold and delicious to get us through the summer months.” They have slowly added cookies and house-made sourdough bread, a French-style Levain dough. “My whole life I’ve had a vision and goal to have a bakery and pastry shop.” The pastries are hand-made using European-style butter. 

“Our butter cakes are made to sit on the counter at home, and not in the refrigerator before serving,” she said. We recently celebrated Linda’s birthday with a beautiful Tuxedo Cake from Fairhope Chocolate. Everyone loved it. This week, for a recent field trip to the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta, we made sandwiches using their sourdough bread and it’s really good. Fairhope Chocolate also sells coffee, hot chocolate, beer, wine, boba tea, expresso drinks, most anything to quench a thirst. 

“Having a master’s degree in education, I love teaching people who are passionate about learning something new,” she says. “We’ve had a lot of success with culinary interns, and I enjoy watching people come here to learn how to prepare our offerings the right way. I want this to be a really fun place to work. We want to hire people with a desire to learn and grow. Furthermore, we can be flexible with new employees if they show some flair for this and love to learn. We are currently hiring!”

When I called Chef Jule to tell her how delicious the Turkey Pot Pie and the Pumpkin Pie that we had for Thanksgiving were, she said, “Oh good! I feel like I’m sending my children out the door when my customers pick up their orders.” Linda kept saying over and over that it was the best pumpkin pie she had ever tasted. The turkey pot pie was devoured just before my grown sons left for home. We made quick work of both.

Chef Jule says, “We’ve grown so much and added so many new items, we’re contemplating adding to the name.” Fairhope Chocolate wants everyone who visits to find something they love. Check out the What’s Working episode she did last year with Cam Marston; a tasting journey to show how her delicacies are prepared and offer insights on the ingredients she sources from across the U.S. and Europe. Fairhope Chocolate also has space for events, meetings, and classes. Chef Jule is available for speaking events as well.

Chef Jule is truly exceptional, as are her confections, pastries, muffins, and, of course, chocolates. “When I started, I wanted to do something different that would be part of the community that would allow people to escape for a minute, meet with family and friends, and sweeten their day.” 

I'd say you’ve hit a home run, Chef Jule!

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