Published Sep. 15, 2026at3:12pm
One of San Francisco’s most innovative chocolate companies has closed. Topogato, which opened last May at 5203 Geary Blvd., made its final sales Monday. Owner Simon Brown plans to sell off equipment and find a new tenant. He will continue to make his cherry-shiso-balsamic truffles and strawberry almond bars available online.
“I’ve loved everything I’ve made,” Brown says, “but it wasn’t growing quickly enough.”
Brown blames record-high cacao prices and the steep cost of doing business in San Francisco. Cacao prices tripled in 2024, peaking toward the end of the year at a record $12,000 per metric ton. The price came down last year, but the correction overlapped with a tapering of consumer demand and increased costs related to packaging, materials, and shipping, Brown says.
Brown started Topogato during the pandemic, growing it into an online business and retail shop. | Source: Courtesy Topogato
Topogato’s margins are sometimes around 60%. But chocolate is not a necessity, and going into last year’s holiday season, shoppers were retreating from splurges. Though he recovered some sales toward the end of the year, the holiday boost was not enough. “People seemed to pull back on all their spending,” Brown says. “My friends in restaurants and bars also said it was a rough year.”
Operating in such an expensive city was also a challenge, Brown says. Though he had a good deal on the space — his landlord raised his rent only moderately after the first year — he would have needed to roughly double his sales this summer to have confidently carried on operating in the Richmond. “We’re at this crazy place in the city where everything is astronomically high,” Brown says. “There’s a lot of wealth here, but everyone is tightening their purse strings.”
Topogato truffles are known for unusual flavors and stunning visual appeal. | Source: Courtesy Topogato
But the challenges Brown confronted aren’t unique. Oakland’s Xocolate Bar and Jade Chocolates in Chinatown closed in the past two years.
Brown hopes to keep Topogato going, but he’s not sure what the path forward looks like. A second business partner, who joined after Monroe exited, also decided to step away this year.
“It’s strange. I saw a lot of potential with Topogato,” Brown says. “I’d like to start something else. But I need some time and room to breathe.”