Sacramento Chocolate Salon

This was my second Chocolate Salon (attended one in SF previously). I thought the SF one was overcrowded and extremely difficult to enjoy, but when I heard there would be one in Sacramento, I decided to give it another try. Now I know better, and I won’t be going to any more of their events.
I love chocolate. In all seriousness, I spend more on chocolate than a lot of people spend on groceries. You’d think I would enjoy an event that’s dedicated to chocolate. It seems pretty hard to screw up, but the organizers of this event manage to do it.
Overcrowding was the biggest issue, both in terms of the space as a whole and the area around each booth. The space could have been double the size and I’m still not sure that would have been adequate. Booths needed to be spread out much more, too, as it was difficult to get anywhere near a booth without wading through tightly-​packed people. No matter what you were doing or where you were standing, you were in someone’s way. There was no way to take a step back and eat, drink, talk, etc.
The crowding also seemed really unfair to the merchants. Not only were they handing out tons of free samples, but all the freebie-​seekers made it very difficult to make actual purchases. I would have spent quite a bit more, but the whole experience was just too annoying.
Having someone selling beverages other than wine would have been really nice, too. The SF event had a number of other beverages available for purchase, but I wasn’t able to find water at this one.
I would have also liked to see some indication of how many vendors there would be — in advance. Although the Salon in SF had quite a few vendors, the one in Sacramento was barely worth bothering with.
Although some of the vendors were great, the event itself was pretty terrible and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, even if you’re getting in at a discount.

DID YOU SAY CHOCOLATE? CHOCOLATE!
It was ‘alright’ due to small amount of vendors and horribly planned venue accommodations but plus a star for groupon, first one, and for trying to bring real chocolate to the people. Respect.
So I love me some artisan chocolate. Its heavenly on the taste buds and the perfect networking gift. I was excited when a girlfriend sent me the link to a groupon deal for the first Chocolate Salon in hometown Sac! I loved the SF version, so I happily bought a ticket.
Its too complicated to explain in detail due to the multiple independently operating vendors so I’ll just list pros & cons.
Pro: Well known location, nice event staff, good artisan chocolate, price with groupon, event discounts.
Lecture was awesome by Oscura Chocolate!
Cons: Poorly organized spatially, few vendors relative to full price, limited parking.
What didn’t make sense to me was waiting 30 minutes to get into the room when there are only 1-​hr meters around. They said the room was at capacity, why would you sell so many tickets then? They said that they didn’t expect everyone to come so early and all at once but when you are coming to try free chocolate, of course you come before it’s all gone.
There were not that many vendors and some didn’t give samples or were pretty pretentious. If I had paid full price, I would have regretted.
Overall I’m a fan and I hope they know what to improve upon for next time. I recommend!