Are you in need of a treat to satiate your sweet tooth? Are you looking for a cozy place to enjoy a light meal and escape from the cold? Look no further than The French Connection, a chocolate shop located at 72 Main Street in Pine Bush, in between PB Eye Associates and the Oriental House. This store specializes in dozens of desserts, all made from scratch by one person with three decades of experience.

Susie Monaghan, the store’s manager, started making chocolates and sweets for her friends and family 30 years ago. She picked up this palatable pastime after taking a cooking class at Romar’s, a defunct chocolate shop formerly in Monroe and Goshen. Monaghan and her mother also ran a shop in Cold Spring called The Village Peddler, where the two prepared and sold sweets and lunches between 1989 and 1991.

“There was a little tiny chocolate shop called Romar’s that started in Monroe. I found out that they made (chocolate) molds and held classes, so I took one of the classes and fell in love with making chocolates,” she said. “And I just kept making them. I would make them for holidays and I would make them for friends, and it just stuck with me.”

A few years ago, Monaghan’s family suggested that she open up a chocolate shop in Pine Bush, pointing her to a vacant store on Main Street. She decided to go for it, and after a year’s worth of preparation, she opened up The French Connection in 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic. Monaghan closed down the shop during the pandemic and reopened in 2021.

“My kids would tell me ‘You should open up a shop,’ because it was my dream to have a little tiny business,” she said. “I didn’t want to do it over the computer, I’m not really computer savvy. I want to be amongst the people and talk to them, I want to have a good time and see what people like and hear their stories.”

Visitors entering The French Connection will be greeted by an exquisite interior reminiscent of Paris, decorated with glittering lights, shelves filled with elegant tableware, and displays chocked full of desserts. The shop can hold up to 14 guests, serving as the perfect for a date or tea party with friends. The shop’s name and theme were inspired by Monaghan’s father, a World War II veteran who served four years overseas in France and recounted the country’s beauties to Monaghan as a child.

“My father was overseas for four years, so growing up, he was in France. He used to try to teach me the language, but I found it difficult to learn some words,” she said. “Even though he was there in the midst of a war, he found the loveliness of France. He would talk about the little villages and the people he met; every time he would come upon a farm, people would offer him eggs and help him. He thought the country was beautiful.”

The French Connection boasts a huge variety of tantalizing treats, enough to satiate any craving. Customers can enjoy chocolate bark coated in nuts and caramel, freshly baked pastries like muffins and cookies, alien-themed lollipops, cannoli cakes topped with homemade frosting, banana splits, and much more. The shop also serves light and “dainty” breakfast and lunch meals, including roast chicken, egg salad, roast beef, ham salad, omelets, and fruit. Monaghan makes nearly everything on her own, with occasional help from her husband Joe and Rockland Bakery.

“People really like our chocolate and cannoli cake; we make them large and small, and we make our cannoli creams in different flavors,” she said. “You could get a cannoli cake with chocolate cannoli cream in the middle and some ganache frosting, or you could get a raspberry cannoli cake.”

While the pandemic slowed down business for a while, Monaghan has enjoyed serving Pine Bush and getting to know its residents over the last few years. As someone not originally from Pine Bush, she considers the hamlet a nice, quaint area to do business in, similar to Warwick or Beacon. She especially admires the Pine Bush UFO museum and volunteers for the museum’s lantern tours, serving lollipops and refreshments to the tour’s attendees. Monaghan hopes to cater even more events in the hamlet.

“Residents can order their holiday items from me. I have several hundred (chocolate) molds that cover any party or event they can think of, including birthday parties, anniversaries, weddings, bar mitzvahs, communions, confirmations, and graduations,” she said. “We have five schools in this town, and I have school bus and apple molds.”

The French Connection is located at 72 Main Street in Pine Bush. The hours of operation are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Tuesday through Friday and 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday; the store is closed on Sunday and Monday. For more information, call 845-453-0702 or visit /frenchconnectionpinebush.wordpress.com/specialty-chocolates/.

For this winter season, the shop will serve bread bowls filled with daily homemade soup, including pea soup, fall stew, beef stew, thick lentil soup, and chili.