Ghirardelli Square

This guide to Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco follows Domenico Ghirardelli, who lost two shops to fire within a single week in 1851 before rebuilding a chocolate business from nothing after arriving from Italy by way of Peru. It traces the accidental discovery of the broma process, when a forgotten sack of chocolate left its cocoa butter to drain out overnight and gave Ghirardelli's chocolate its national fame. The old wool mill the company bought in 1893 still stands on this waterfront, having come through the 1906 earthquake untouched.