Offerings Continue to Expand at Finishing Touches

MALTA — Doug Dockendorf and Shelly Walker initially purchased the Wiggins-Collamer House in Malta in 2020 as the new location for Finishing Touches Home Decor, Walker’s interior design, home decor, and gift company.

They redeveloped part of the building to an ice cream shop called Cookies & Cream, serving customers outside through windows. The ice cream options were expanded the following year, and a coffee bar was added last May.

Now, they have expanded their offerings yet again, introducing a variety of gourmet fudge, truffle, and chocolate products from Chocolate Moonshine.

“There’s nothing like this anywhere around,” said Dockendorf. “We’ve got, pretty much, four businesses in one. We’ve got Finishing Touches, which is the gift store and interior design, we’ve got Cookies & Cream, which is the ice cream, we have the little coffee bar, and then we have now, all the truffles and fudge.”

Dockendorf described Chocolate Moonshine’s products as “a visual experience.”

“It is truly the finest chocolates in the world,” said Dockendorf. “And when I say that, I mean that. It’s just amazing.”

Chocolate Moonshine’s truffle bars are made with Belgian chocolate and a milk chocolate ganache inside, Dockendorf said, and hand-painted with cocoa butter. They also offer gourmet fudge, chocolate-covered turtles, pretzels, and more.

“They make great gifts, great presents,” Dockendorf said. Unless you buy them online, you can’t get them locally. So we added that in.”

Cookies and Cream’s chocolate is located inside across from the coffee bar. The coffee bar opened last year, offering a variety of products including lattes, cappuccinos, espressos, affogato, iced coffee, and organic tea.

“It was supposed to just be a little self-serve coffee station, and it turned into everything,” Walker said. “Which is good, because we sell a lot of lattes, cappuccinos, and espressos.”

The coffee bar also offers a selection of baked goods from The Sugar Fairy Bakes, which recently opened a location in Malta, with Dockendorf saying supporting other local businesses is “what we’re all about here.”

The historic Wiggins-Collamer House was built in 1835 and was formerly used as Malta’s Town Hall, according to information on the Town of Malta website. 

The building borders Collamer Park, and features a large outdoor space and patio that Dockendorf and Walker are supplementing with improvements and additions such as a redone lawn, a tent, bathrooms, seating areas, and a variety of outdoor games.

“Jump ropes, we’ve got Connect 4,” Walker said. “We’ve got cornhole, Jenga, coloring books out there, checkers.”

“We put a chess set in, a big, outdoor chess set, which is awesome,” said Dockendorf. “Everybody’s out here every day playing it.”

Dockendorf emphasized his goal of creating a space where people can spend time outdoors, and said that the community response so far has been “unbelievable.”

“We’re trying to create something for the town, for Saratoga, and for the surrounding areas, to make it something special,” said Dockendorf. “Everyone is so excited about it. And we’re excited too, because we want them to come, and have fun with it. It’s not just about us. It’s about getting to know everybody in the town.”

“It’s not just a place people come, get ice cream, and then leave,” Walker added. “They can sit and hang out with their friends, and chat. The kids are going wild out there, running from one thing to the other.”

Dockendorf said he hopes for people to “spend time and hang out” in the park and its adjoining spaces. “I want them to come sit on that picnic table for a couple hours,” said Dockendorf. “Let them have fun. Let them enjoy the park. … I think it’s a wonderful place to spend time.”

Collamer Park also includes a basketball court that adjoins the property, and Dockendorf said he is planning to convert a large bush on the property into a ‘kids zone.’

“I saw a couple kids run in there one day,” Dockendorf said. “I looked in there, and it’s all these vines in there and stuff. So we’re going to make it a kids’ zone. We have lots of kids here, every day. It’s getting busier every day. We love it.”

Dockendorf said since opening, the interactions with the local community have been “the best part about it.”

“We’ve got some wonderful people that work for us,” Dockendorf said. “We’ve got great neighbors and great customers. It’s just amazing. For Shelly and I, it’s the best thing we’ve ever done.”