When Inge Kiss and her husband, Marshall Parker, boarded a flight to Croatia a decade ago they had no idea the trip would reshape their lives. At the time, both were busy professionals in Boston: Inge working as Chief Sales Officer for a French engineering consultancy covering North America and Asia-Pacific, and Marshall as financial controller for a British firm. Their careers were secure, the city familiar. But both were restless.
“I was looking for a small business opportunity,” Inge recalls. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted something different.”
The spark arrived in the form of chocolate. During that vacation, they rented a house with Inge’s high school best friend Michelle, who now lived in Switzerland. Michelle arrived bearing a stack of Swiss chocolate bars. Marshall, ever the pragmatist, turned to Inge and quipped, “why don’t you do that?”
Inge didn’t hesitate. “I can totally do that,” she said.
And with that offhand exchange, Whim Chocolate was born.
Back in Boston, Inge threw herself into chocolate-making. She started with a double boiler, tempering small batches at night after work, experimenting with flavours, failing and trying again. Soon, their kitchen filled with trays, molds, and eventually small tempering machines.
What began as a hobby became an obsession. “She came up with a list of a hundred flavours,” Marshall remembers with a laugh. “And suddenly our kitchen was overflowing.”
At first, Marshall resisted. “We both had full-time jobs, and I thought it would just be this little side thing. But being the loving husband I am, I kind of got dragged into it.” He ended up handling sales, marketing, and accounting, while Inge honed her craft.
Their early experiments revealed not only a talent but also a vision. Inge was determined to make chocolate that tasted as good as it looked, unlike a disappointing high-end bar she once splurged on in Boston that turned out to be bland. “We wanted to be the antithesis of that,” she says. “Real flavours, real quality, transparent packaging. You see what you get.”
By 2019, Whim Chocolate had developed a cult following in Boston through farmers’ markets and wholesale sales. Customers waited eagerly to see what flavours Inge and Marshall would dream up next. Yet for all the enthusiasm, the business wasn’t overly profitable. Wholesale margins were thin; selling directly at markets was the only way to turn a profit.
Then came a moment that forced them to rethink everything. After appearing on the Radio Entrepreneurs podcast, Marshall asked the host for advice on running a business part-time. The host’s reply was blunt, ‘you can’t run a business part-time.’
“That really hit us,” Marshall says.
At the same time, Inge was promoted to Chief Sales Officer, her workload growing heavier by the day. Burned out, she even considered shutting Whim down. Marshall wasn’t ready to let go. “We had a following. People loved it. I said, let me take over production for a year while you focus on your job.”
That experiment bought them time and laid the foundation for a bigger leap.
In 2020, life presented them with an inflection point. Inge, originally from Canada, was offered the chance to keep her job while relocating to Halifax. Marshall’s company had no Canadian branch and let him go. Suddenly, the couple found themselves in Nova Scotia, one still employed, the other unemployed and without permanent residency. It was terrifying but also liberating.
“We thought, well, why don’t we restart the chocolate company here?” Marshall says. But they worried whether Whim could stand alone. The solution was to surround it with something bigger. Specialty foods had always been their shared passion. In Boston, shops like Whole Foods and Wegmans overflowed with imported cheeses, sauces, and condiments. In Halifax, the selection was more limited.
“On one of our first trips to Sobeys, we were shocked at how hard it was to find certain cheeses,” Marshall recalls. “We thought, let’s carry the foods we love that we can’t find here.”
Friends encouraged them further, asking if they could import favourites they missed. “People would say, ‘I love this dressing, but I can’t find it here.’ So, we brought it in,” Inge explains. “And when we told the story to our customers, they’d say, ‘What about me?’ That’s how the shop’s theme evolved: everything we carry is something we love or something one of our customer loves.”
Thus, Frabjous, their whimsical specialty food shop, was born.
Their first space, on the corner of Agricola and Roberts Street, was tiny but charming. Shelves overflowed with European pantry staples, locally roasted coffee, rare condiments, and of course, Whim Chocolate. The couple’s approach was simple but distinctive. Every product came with a story, and every customer was invited to taste.
Sampling became central to Frabjous’s identity. Whether it was Danish gourmet licorice or a hard-to-pronounce French spread, customers were encouraged to try before buying. “We’ve converted so many people into licorice lovers,” Marshall laughs. “We now call it gateway licorice.”
They also opened their doors to Halifax’s maker community. On weekends, Frabjous often hosts pop-ups for local artisans, taking no commission. “It’s our way of supporting local without duplicating what everyone else is carrying,” Inge says.
The first shop quickly proved too small to house both retail and chocolate production. While scouting for larger spaces, Marshall was introduced to developer Danny Chedrawe, who invited them to consider Richmond Yards, a mixed-use development on Almon Street featuring live-work units.
It was perfect. The upstairs apartment could be converted into a chocolate kitchen, while the ground floor became a second Frabjous location. They signed the lease in late 2024.
Then fate intervened. Within a week, their landlord offered them the soon-to-be-vacant space of Local Source, a beloved Agricola Street fixture. The chance to secure such a prime location was too good to pass up. Suddenly, they had two shops.
The dual locations now serve distinct communities. Agricola attracts walkers, tourists, and weekly regulars picking up cheese or pantry staples. Richmond Yards caters to apartment dwellers and commuters who appreciate its parking. The overlap is minimal, giving Frabjous access to two unique customer bases.
Despite the expansion into specialty foods, chocolate remains at the heart of their story. Whim is more than a product line. It’s their creative outlet. Each season brings new flavours: horchata, haskap, cloudberry, raspberry hibiscus.
“It keeps things interesting,” Inge says. “We love the process of experimenting and then getting feedback from customers. People are always surprised by combinations they’d never think of.”
For loyal fans who mourn discontinued seasonal flavours, Inge created a permanent line of “Mondials,” coin-shaped chocolates topped with dried fruits and nuts featuring customer favorites like Raspberry Lime Rickey and Dark & Stormy.
Chocolate also balances the business financially. Specialty foods slow down in the first quarter, but Valentine’s Day, Easter, and Mother’s Day bring a surge in chocolate sales. “It evens things out,” Marshall notes.
Relocating, and political changes in the United States, meant rework their supply chain. Sourcing ingredients in Canada proved challenging but ultimately rewarding. They prioritize Canadian and European suppliers, adding American products only if customers specifically request them.
This choice isn’t just logistical, it’s philosophical. “Personally, we try to buy Canadian,” Inge explains. “But our commitment is to carry what our customers love, even if it means bringing in an American product occasionally.”
Tariffs, currency fluctuations, and shifting U.S. politics complicate decisions. Some customers hesitate to buy U.S. products, while others make nuanced distinctions between states. “One woman picked up a book, saw it was published in the U.S., and put it back,” Inge says. “Then she realized it was from California and said, ‘Oh, I’ll support that.’ It’s interesting how nuanced people’s choices have become.”
Five years after leaving Boston, Inge and Marshall now juggle two thriving shops and a growing chocolate brand. Their goals are clear. Grow Whim Chocolate by increasing production, and maintaining seasonal creativity, and secondly working on ways to continue to enhance the Frabjous customer experience, both in-store and via expanded home delivery options.
At its core, their business is about joy, turning specialty food shopping into a moment discovery, and chocolate into art. As Inge says “customers walk in curious and walk out smiling, carrying not just food but a story to share.”
From a chance stack of Swiss chocolate in Croatia to two bustling storefronts in Halifax, Inge and Marshall’s journey proves that sometimes the sweetest lives are built from whimsy.
This article appears in Sep 1-30, 2025.