When the R.J. Peacock Canning Co. closed in 2001, it was a bittersweet time for its employees and the town of Lubec.

Now two former employees of that company are taking something bittersweet to create new employment opportunities in the Washington County town.

Eugene Greenlaw and Monica Peters are the owners and staff of Seaside Chocolates, which has been operating since last July 4th in the former Peacock building at 72 Water St. Theirs is a simple philosophy: if they create something unique, people will come.

“What we want to do is to develop chocolate that you can’t get in other places,” Greenlaw said.

It is eerily quiet on Water Street during a midwinter visit. Too quiet for a town that housed some 50 sardine-packing plants in the early 1900s.

The aging Peacock factory building, which processed first sardines and later salmon, seems an unlikely place to develop sweet treats. But it’s an appropriate location, as it’s where the two owners first cooked together.

Greenlaw was employed at Peacock for 31 years, working his way up to plant and production manager. He stayed on for another year after the final rounds of layoffs, filling orders. He also lobsters and keeps fish weirs.

Peters, a former dress designer, came to Lubec from Lima, Peru, two years ago, when her husband, Stanley, took a job at the plant. After he suffered a stroke, she went to work there for eight months before it closed.

Peters and Greenlaw met at the plant and discovered they both enjoyed cooking.

“I like to cook, and Monica’s an extremely good cook,” Greenlaw said. “We would cook for the crew on night work.”

At first, Peters suggested opening a restaurant. Greenlaw, who was still working at Peacock and at his fishing jobs, declined.

Then Peters remembered the chocolates that her Peruvian father used to make, and she knew what product she and Greenlaw could make.

They spent much of the winter of 2002 studying chocolates, looking for recipes in books, on the Internet and from friends. They also sampled other chocolates on the market. It took them six months to develop their product line in the old cannery’s kitchen.

The unique part of Seaside Chocolates’ signature bonbon is its chewy center, adapted from Peter’s father’s recipe. It’s not quite caramel, not really nougat. But it is delicious.

The center is then hand-dipped in bittersweet chocolate mixed with chopped almonds, pecans, coconut, walnuts or plums. The hefty bonbons are then wrapped individually in colorful foil and tied off with a ribbon. The chocolates are sold in packs of six and 12.

The bonbons are available at a handful of stores in Washington and Hancock counties. Also in stores are truffles and molded chocolate (currently rabbits).

A wider variety is available at the Lubec factory itself. The rotating inventory, all handmade, includes Pisco- (a Peruvian liqueur) soaked chocolate-covered raisins, peanut-butter cups, chocolate-covered cherries and marshmallows, needhams and needhams with almonds, and various nut clusters. Bittersweet is their main chocolate, but they also use an increasing amount of white.

“We develop them, and try to make them a little better,” Greenlaw said. “We make them as naturally as we can.”

The tourists who sampled the Seaside chocolates this summer were placing orders during a busy holiday season. The owners had to turn away an order for 800 dozen bonbons from New York, because they couldn’t fill it by themselves.

Greenlaw and Peters are working with Hire and Higher, a business development project targeted toward growth-oriented micro-businesses in Washington and Hancock counties, to help their company grow.

“We’ve got something here that can be developed, a good place for employment,” Greenlaw said. “We want to help the community, to put Lubec back on its feet.”

Seaside Chocolates are available at Mainway, Route 1 in Ellsworth; Sow’s Ear, Machias; Nature’s Pantry, Calais; Whiting Store, Whiting; McFadden’s Store and The Quick Shop, Lubec; and by phone from the factory at 733-2575.