Unlike wacky chocolatier Willy Wonka, Robyn Dochterman’s vision of a chocolate factory is a bit more on the pragmatic side.

Dochterman, of Scandia, has spent the last few months busily preparing to open an artisan chocolate shop in downtown Marine on St. Croix.

The chocolate shop, which will be based out of the quaint building on Parker Street, near the Brookside Bar & Grill, won’t feature any of the zany accoutrements that made Wonka’s famed factory so vivid. Most of the building’s floor space is dedicated to the decidedly untheatrical: production and storage spaces.

“It’s just been like a (list of) little decisions,” Dochterman said of the process of setting up the business. “But that’s OK, it’s part of the fun.”

Dochterman plans to name the business the St. Croix Chocolate Company.

“[The name] doesn’t get high marks for originality,” Dochterman said, “but hopefully everyone knows what it is when they see it.”

Rather than the building or the business’s name, Dochterman’s creativity is pouring into the chocolate itself.

A self-described “refugee of the cubicle world,” Dochterman, of Scandia, worked as the Minneapolis Star Tribune Web site editor for 12 years. In the ever-changing world of journalism, Dochterman said the business began to feel less satisfying and more stifling. Dochterman took a buyout from the company and struck out in the cooking world.

After dabbling in cheese-making and as a pastry chef, Dochterman found chocolate. She attended the Barry Callebaut Chocolate Academy, an academic arm of one of the world’s largest chocolate producing companies, and absolutely loved the classes.

“It sounds pretentious … but they teach techniques you can’t get from books,” she said.

Going into the chocolate business full-time was just “the next logical step,” Dochterman said.

Dochterman has been making chocolate for about two-and-a-half years now, which she acknowledges “in the chocolate world, that’s not many.”

Dochterman has received a lot of support from all sorts of people: a former newspaper colleague connected her with a business accountant, local builder Dan Froiland helped her find the building and is overseeing the remodeling work, and family and friends have been supportive as well.

“I’m incredibly fortunate to have such good relationships with the people doing the work,” she said. “It’s thrilling to me that there can be that kind of support.”

Even her colleagues in the chocolate business have been helpful.

“Chocolatiers don’t tend to see each other as cutthroat competition,” she said. “There’s a free give-and-take [of information] out there.”

Dochterman believes that any successful business model involves blending experience and innovation.

“I’m not always convinced that people who do things for 20 years bring the kind of innovation [to a profession] that people who are less experienced do,” Dochterman said.

Dochterman doesn’t plan to be a “bean-to-bar” chocolatier, but she does plan on seeking out the finest chocolates from around the world.

“Chocolate now is very much where wine was maybe 20 years ago,” she said.

To appeal to those who favor local food sources, Dochterman hopes to pair some of her chocolates with nearby sources of cream and milk — Crystal Ball Farms organic dairy in Osceola is one possibility — as well as nuts, berries and other fruits.

She plans to sell some chocolate “out the front door,” but anticipates that the bulk of her business will be done online and to wholesalers.

The St. Croix Chocolate Company is tentatively scheduled to open in mid April.