Creo Chocolate, a family-owned chocolatier with roots in the neighborhood, opened its first shop outside Portland at Cedar Hills Crossing on Sept. 10.

Father-and-son owners Tim and Kevin Straub greeted a long line of customers at the new location, 2855 S.W. Cedar Hills Blvd., next to La Provence. Tim Straub grew up near the Cedar Hills Boulevard site in the 1970s and graduated from Sunset High School.

The opening drew Beaverton Mayor Lacey Beaty and Beaverton Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Alicia Bermes to the ribbon-cutting.

"They have such a following in Portland, so it's great to have them here now in Beaverton," Bermes said at the Sept. 10 event, the Beaverton Valley Times reported.

Beaty said the shop shows that businesses want to be in Beaverton and credited property owner C.E. John with assembling a strong tenant mix at the shopping center.

The Straub family founded Creo Chocolate in 2014. The business grew out of chocolate-making that started on the family's raspberry farm in Ridgefield, Washington. The company sources its cacao exclusively from a single-estate farm in Ecuador, according to Creo's website. Food & Wine named Creo one of the 50 best chocolate makers and shops in the United States in 2021.

The Cedar Hills Crossing shop is Creo's fourth location. The other three are in Portland, including the Creo Chocolate Lab at 100 N.E. Farragut St., where the public can watch cocoa beans become chocolate bars.

Tim Straub's late wife, Janet, co-founded the business and once led those factory tours even while undergoing chemotherapy. Janet Straub also held her first job at the Emporium department store at Beaverton Mall, the same property later renamed Cedar Hills Crossing.

At the grand opening, Tim Straub handed out samples including Dark Orange Chocolate made with dried orange and sugar crystals infused with orange zest. Creo's best sellers are its salted caramels.

The Straubs pledged to donate 10 percent of the shop's first week of profits to the Beaverton Education Foundation, a nonprofit established in 1988 that funds hands-on academic programs across all 53 Beaverton public schools. The foundation has invested more than $7 million in over 3,300 school programs.

Cedar Hills Crossing draws roughly 30,000 trips per day, according to the center's leasing materials. The shopping center sits near the Tektronix and Nike campuses and is adding 120,000 square feet of retail, medical, financial and restaurant space.

Creo Chocolate's new shop at 2855 S.W. Cedar Hills Blvd. is open now.