Ben & Bill’s Chocolate Emporium in Bar Harbor, Maine, has a fantastic selection of sweets – including some pretty wild ice cream flavors! – so you’d be forgiven if you missed the fact that as of 2026, the small chain is 70 years old.
Established in Martha’s Vineyard in 1956 by Paul and Marty Trahan as Trahan’s Candies, new locations were soon opened in Oak Bluffs, Falmouth, and Hyanis in Massachusetts, and West Palm Beach and West Palm Beach in Florida. The Bar Harbor location opened in 1980 and became the company’s headquarters, and like other locations, made their own chocolates and candies onsite.
Eventually, Trahan’s Candies added ice cream, and on a dare in 1988 they introduced lobster flavored ice cream, which consists of buttered lobster chunks in vanilla. Sadly, I missed this when I was in the store, as there was quite a line and the aisle you are funneled through is pretty narrow, so your time to look over all the goods is a bit limited.
Also in 1988, the store was sold to nephews Bill and Ben Coggins, who renamed it Ben & Bill’s Chocolate Emporium. While this is a fine name, it does leave out the lobster ice cream part. Today, visitors can enjoy ice creams and gelatos, salt water taffy, chocolates, cordials, gummy candies, fudge, nut brittle and bark, candy pebbles, and a lot of other wild sweets you can’t find anywhere else. It’s totally worth it if you’re interested in cool places you can’t find anywhere else except their other location in Oak Bluffs, MA, especially if you have a sweet tooth!
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