The 78-year-old chocolate and ice cream brand just opened at Park Place Mall - and the open kitchen is the whole experience.

If you've ever been to a beach town anywhere on the East Coast - Naples, Savannah, Key West, Cape Cod - chances are you've walked past a Kilwins. The smell of fresh waffle cones pulls you in from the sidewalk, you tell yourself you're just going to look, and you walk out ten minutes later with a bag of fudge and a double scoop. That's the Kilwins experience. And as of last week, Boca has one.

Kilwins opened at Park Place Mall on North Military Trail with a four-day grand opening celebration that kicked off March 2nd, complete with a ribbon cutting, tastings from neighboring Park Place restaurants, and a line that wrapped around the front of the store. Based on the foot traffic since then, the novelty isn't wearing off.

A Petoskey Bakery That Became a National Brand

Kilwins was founded in 1947 by Don and Katy Kilwin in Petoskey, Michigan - a small resort town on the shore of Lake Michigan. It started as a bakery. During the slower winter months, the Kilwins started making chocolates and confections to keep the business going. The sweets took off so quickly that they eventually sold the bakery side of the business entirely and went all-in on chocolate, fudge, and candy.

Ice cream came later, and it's what most people know them for now. The company is still headquartered in Petoskey today, nearly 80 years later. They've grown to over 160 franchise locations across the country, but the playbook hasn't changed much: everything is made in-house, in front of the customer, using the same recipes. That's the whole pitch - you're not buying packaged candy off a shelf. You're watching someone pull fudge and hand-dip chocolates while you decide what to order.

What It's Like Inside

The Boca location is run by Ileana and Wayne, who handle daily operations. Walk in and the first thing you notice is the open kitchen behind glass at the front of the store. You can see them rolling waffle cones, cutting fudge, dipping strawberries in chocolate. It smells like warm sugar and butter before you're even through the door. There's a reason parents bring kids here - it's basically a live cooking show with free samples.

The ice cream counter runs along one side with a full lineup of their super-premium flavors. The chocolate and fudge displays take up the other side - hand-crafted chocolates, caramel apples coated in various toppings, slabs of fudge in every flavor you can think of, chocolate-covered pretzels, turtles, bark, brittles. The caramel apples are a production - we're talking full-size Granny Smiths dipped in caramel and then rolled in things like Oreo crumbles, M&Ms, or crushed peanuts. They look like something out of a county fair, except they're made fresh daily.

The space itself is bright and clean with the classic Kilwins maroon branding. It's not huge, but it doesn't need to be. Most people order at the counter and eat outside or take it to go. On a warm night it's a perfect after-dinner walk destination - grab a waffle cone, stroll around Park Place.

Why It Matters for Boca

Boca hasn't really had a dedicated ice cream and chocolate shop like this. There are gelato spots, there are chains, there are dessert restaurants - but a place where everything is handmade in front of you, where the whole experience is watching the kitchen work while you pick out candy? That's been missing. Most Kilwins locations are in walkable tourist towns with heavy foot traffic. Putting one in a Boca shopping plaza is a bet that locals will make it a regular stop, not just a one-time curiosity.

Early signs are good. The grand opening pulled a big crowd, the Instagram page already has 60+ followers and growing, and the Google reviews are starting to roll in with people specifically calling out the waffle cones and fudge. If you've been to a Kilwins somewhere else and thought "I wish we had one at home" - you're exactly who this location was built for.

The Game Plan

Go after dinner. The waffle cones are made fresh all day, but there's something about a warm waffle cone at 8 PM that just hits different. If you're buying gifts or just stocking up, the hand-boxed chocolates and fudge are the move - they look impressive and taste like someone actually made them (because someone did, about an hour ago). If you're with kids, good luck leaving without a bag of something. Parking at Park Place is easy and the shop is open until 11 PM every night, so there's no rush.

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