Courtesy / Melissa Mullen Photography
Dean Bingham hand-dips chocolates at his Portland confectionary, Dean’s Sweets.
May 10, 2021
For 75-year-old Portland chocolatier and long-distance cyclist, business is a sweet ride
Courtesy / Melissa Mullen Photography
Dean and Kristin Bingham are seen here at the beginning of a 2017 cross-country ride to help combat multiple sclerosis. Kristin joins Dean at the beginning of his long rides, then leaves him to it.
After a day working the production line, there’s nothing sweeter than taking a nice bike ride.
For Portland chocolatier Dean Bingham, several thousand miles does the trick — especially when his long-distance ride raises money for a worthy cause.
The co-owner of candy maker and retail shop Dean’s Sweets plans to begin a 3,000-mile ride on Wednesday, May 12, with the goal of raising $30,000 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
His route will take him from Key West, Fla., along the East Coast to Calais, in Washington County.
No stranger to long-distance, solo bike rides, Bingham chose 3,000 miles and $30,000 as his milestones because this is his 30th consecutive year riding to support MS.
He estimated the journey will finish up July 1.
The ride marks two other milestones, too — the society and Bingham are both turning 75 this year.
“Age has never meant much to me. It’s just a number,” Bingham said in a news release. “I’m happy to be healthy and able to do what I do.”
Architecture
The bulk of Bingham’s career has been spent in architecture, in Boston, and later in Blue Hill and then Portland. He worked for other firms, with a partner and for himself at various points in his career. His projects were primarily residential, both single and multifamily, with occasional forays into municipal buildings, schools, restaurants and zoos.
In 2011, he won a restaurant design award in the Los Angeles AIA competition for his design of Grace restaurant, a former 1860s church-turned-restaurant on Chestnut Street in Portland.
He began his truffle-making career years ago as a sideline. While working in Blue Hill, he made truffles as gifts for friends and family, experimenting with different techniques and flavors.
“Like architecture, truffle-making requires a sense of aesthetics and design — and a laser-like attention to detail,” he wrote in his bio.
In 2001, he met Kristin Thalheimer Bingham, a freelance editor for National Geographic Learning and Oxford University Press.
“We sometimes joked about opening a business,” Kristin wrote in her bio.
Confectionary
In 2002, the idea of opening a confectionery began to take shape.
In 2004, Bingham started making truffles in their home kitchen while still pursuing architecture.
The couple opened a retail shop on Middle Street in Portland in 2008.
In 2010, they received gold medals in the International Chocolate Salon competition for “best truffle,” “best traditional chocolate” and “most delicious ingredient combination.”
They subsequently moved to their current location at 475 Fore St. in Portland. In 2019, they expanded their production and retail space to a second location at 54 Cove St. in Portland’s East Bayside neighborhood.
PHOTO / MAUREEN MILLIKEN
Kristin and Dean Bingham of Dean's Sweets are headed this week to Florida to begin a fundraising bike ride for multiple sclerosis. They’re seen here at their second location at 54 Cove St., Portland.
The expansion allowed production for its growing online and walk-in business, as well as the ability to introduce more products.
Today, they make 30-plus varieties of hand-dipped truffles, caramels and buttercreams, using Maine-sourced ingredients such as organic maple syrup tapped in Madison, sea salt from Marshfield, cream from Misty Brook Farm in Albion, butter from Casco Bay Creamery in Scarborough, beer from Allagash Brewing in Portland, potato chips from Fox Family in Mapleton, spirits from Cold River Vodka in Freeport, coffee from Coffee by Design in Portland, and wild blueberries.
Their products are nut-free; most are gluten-free and some are dairy-free and vegan.
Cycling
Bingham is an enthusiastic cyclist who used to get around Boston by bike.
“I would ride to work because it was a lot faster than waiting for the T,” he told Mainebiz, referring to Boston's public transportation system.
He started doing the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s Bike MS event in 1991. The event is the largest fundraising bike series in the world, today attracting nearly 75,000 individual cyclists and 6,000 teams, according to the society’s website.
Each location around the U.S. has a different name for its event. Maine’s is called the Great Maine Getaway and offers a variety of distances. Bingham is listed as a top-five fundraiser among individual cyclists.
Since 1991, Bingham has mainly done the 150-mile route.
But in 2001 and in 2017, he crafted his own MS fundraiser by cycling solo across the U.S., from the West Coast to Portland.
“When I did the cross-country ride in 2001, I billed it as a solo ride for the benefit of the MS society,” he said. “I raised about $5,000.”
In 2017, he implemented better advertising and publicity meet-ups with MS offices across the country and raised about $12,000.
Go big
This year, he’s upped his goal to $30,000.
“I thought I would, as one friend said, ‘Go big or go home,’” he said.
While a driving route mostly on I-95 would be under 2,000 miles, the East Coast Greenway route from Key West to Calais is about 3,000 miles.
Kristin plans to join him for the first 500 miles. They shipped their bikes to Florida last week and plan to fly down this week.
The greenway connects 15 states and 450 cities and towns for 3,000 miles from Maine to Florida, according to its website.
Bingham started doing the ride because his father lived in a nursing home in Deer Isle and his father’s roommate, Charlie, had MS for 30 years at that point.
“Charlie was quadriplegic, and inspirational,” Bingham said. “Even with his own limited mobility, it was Charlie who kept my father mentally engaged and physically active. I felt like Charlie kept my father alive a few more years than he would have lived otherwise.”
Bingham is accepting contributions on behalf of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society from individuals and companies via his fundraising page on the society’s website. Click here to learn more.
His cycling progress can be followed via Facebook (Dean Bingham) and Instagram (@rdeanbingham).
Bike prep
Bingham uses a lightweight carbon fiber bike and plans to stay at lodgings along the way, so he won’t have to carry overnight gear. Three small bags — under his seat and on his handlebar — will carry things like food, raingear, camera and a change of clothes.
What does he like about biking?
“I enjoy being outside and observing,” he said. “I look at the trees and the flowers — and the buildings, being an architect.”
He’s not out to set speed records. If a sight appeals to him along the way, he’ll stop and snap photos.
“Anytime I pass a building that interests me, I’ll stop and take pictures,” he said. “I enjoy the freedom of being out there on the road.”
He also enjoys the activity as a contrast to making chocolates.
“They completely contrast and I enjoy both,” he said.
Chocolate-making took over the creative role that architecture filled in his life for many years.
“People asked how I could go from architecture to chocolate-making and I tell them they’re the same — they’re both design,” he said. “Cooking is every bit as much about design as a building is, just a different style. And you can eat it, which is pretty great.”
‘Amazingly great’
Bingham said he’s not sure how much Dean’s Sweets produces. But he recalled the first year he realized he had hand-dipped 44,000 truffles — each truffle is placed in a little paper cup and the cups come 44,000 to a case. Now he orders several cases per year and also makes other candies, such as barks and molded pieces, that don’t require hand-dipping. He’s testing options for coated confections and for additional flavors.
Business over the past year has been “amazingly great,” he said.
The Binghams maintained online ordering and implemented curbside pickup and delivery. Both shops remained open for production. While restaurants were closed, they eliminated evening retail hours because much of their evening traffic was due to restaurant-goers taking after-dinner strolls. Sales during the summer were “pretty awful,” he said.
But chocolate-oriented holidays helped, he said. And last summer, they commissioned the design of a new website.
“We feel like it helped our online exposure tremendously,” he said. “So even though we didn’t have the walk-in traffic, we had a lot of online ordering and shipping, which has been great.”
Business started picking up in the fall and now seems to be on par with the first five months of 2019 due to online ordering, he said. They’re optimistic that the start of walk-in traffic will add to their increased level of online ordering for an overall boost to the business.
“We have good chocolate holidays — Christmas, Valentine’s, Easter and now Mother’s Day,” he said. “So the first five months of 2021 are pretty great.”
Most Recent
Most Recent
Anonymous
May 12, 2021
Much respect to you, Dean and Kristin. You launched a business that brings joy to you as well as customers while continuing personal passions. Creativity, determination, hard work and love in abundance!
Anonymous
May 10, 2021
Well done Mr. Bingham.
2 Comments