A recent scientific study found that roughly 97 percent of all scientific studies lead to results that are obvious (an unsurprising result, to be sure). That finding certainly applies to the many studies purporting to prove that chocolate is good for you. Some of those studies say chocolate boosts brain power. Others that it fights cancer. Still others that it reduces blood pressure, cuts cholesterol and so forth and so on.

All of that is well and good. But if you really want to know about the positive effects of chocolate, you need to consult someone who spends a lot of time watching people eat it — someone like Lily Cavender, who works at Coco's Chocolate Cafe on Bardstown Road.

Coco's, owned by Frederick and Elaine Moore, who opened it about 2½ years ago, is the most chocolate-centric shop in the Metro region. It's basically all chocolate all the time. Artisanal chocolates, chocolate cookies, American-style hot chocolate, European-style drinking chocolate (so thick that it might better be called “spooning” chocolate), and the place's crowning glory: chocolate fondue.

Chocolate fondue may have all the magical healing properties associated with scientific-sounding words like antioxidant and oleic acid, but according to Cavender, fondue is all about romance and reconciliation.

Cavender has observed that many of the couples who drop into Coco's late in the evening are happy from the moment they step through the door and breathe what's probably the most chocolate-saturated air in town. Often, those cheery couples are finishing up a date that started with dinner and a movie. They put their heads together over a bowl of melted chocolate and dip blithely away with strawberries, pretzels, Rice Krispie treats, dense pound cake and other goodies. Theirs is a simple romantic story, and one in which chocolate plays, at best, a supporting role.

On the other hand, every once in a while Cavender witnesses something different: make-up chocolate. With some couples, she observes, it's obvious that someone did something wrong. “One of them comes in with a frown,” says Cavender. “And the other one looks pretty unhappy.” In such cases, chocolate displays its true, transformative power.

They'll order fondue for two ($11.99; fondue for four runs $21.99), she says. Then, before long, everything changes in ways so predictable that even a scientist desperate for tenure wouldn't bother conducting a study: The frown gradually turns into a smile. Color returns to the unhappy partner's cheeks. Tense, terse conversational gambits give way to an occasional chuckle. Hands make incidental contact over the heart-shaped bowl filled with dark chocolate liquid. Then that incidental contact turns into a gentle clasp. And by the time the couple step into the night, the frown is forgotten and happiness reigns.

Coco's Chocolate Cafe is at 1759 Bardstown Road; (502) 454-9810; Tuesday and Wednesday, noon-9 p.m.; Thursday, noon-10 p.m.; Friday, noon-11 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-11 p.m.; Sunday, 3-8 p.m.

Is there a food or cooking gadget you love? E-mail freelance columnist Marty Rosen at cjdining@gmail.com.