American chocolate company that manufactures premium chocolate. Its advertising and packaging used to feature a parrot saying "Say Gear-Ar-Delly" in an attempt to create the correct pronounciation of the brand. Started in San Francisco in 1852 by Domingo Ghirardelli, after losing his other retail properties in the Great Fire of 1851. The original factory is currently an antique gallery, you can see it at 415-417 Jackson street. In 1897 he moved his company headquarters to North Point Street overlooking San Francisco Bay. Ghiardelli Square, as it became known, is still a tourist attraction (although no chocolate has been made there since the 1960s, when the factory was moved to San Leandro by the company's new owner, Golden Grain). Ghiardelli Chocolate Company was bought by Swiss chocolate manufacturer Lindt in 1998.

An addendum to this. Ghiradelli Square features a number of kitchy tourist shops and small amusements, but its grandest amusement happens to be an area where you can walk through the factory and they describe to you how the chocolate making process is done.

There is also a very large ice cream parlor where you can sample several different ice cream confections, all with Giradelli's stamp of approval.

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