Local Limelight with Videri head chocolate maker Sam Ratto

Sam Ratto, Videri's co-owner and head chocolate maker, has been working with chocolate for 15 years.

• "I started Videri in 2011 and have not loved any job as much as I love working with chocolate," Ratto tells Axios. Now Ratto, who started golfing at the age of 11 with his Granny, is ready to try something new .

Driving the news: He'll open his newest venture, Golf Golf Golf, in late August or early September, with an eye toward opening as many as six new locations in the next two years.

We talked with Ratto about his new venture and his career in our latest Local Limelight conversation. The Q&A has been edited for Smart Brevity.

🍴 Favorite place to eat in the Triangle: He couldn't pick just one.

• In no particular order: Los Cuates, Bojangles, Ish Delicatessen, Crawford and Son, Death & Taxes, Wandering Wolf (the now-closed Capital Club 16's food truck), Gym Tacos, Brodeto, St. Roch, NanaSteak, Fonda Lupita, State of Beer, and any taco truck up Capital Boulevard.

🚈 What the Triangle is missing: A light rail or just better transportation to explore, work or just get around the region.

📱 First thing reads in the morning: The time on his phone, then the time on his coffee maker.

• Next up is the a morning news briefing. (After that he watches WRAL's weather forecast. "Elizabeth Gardner is a champion.")

📚 Last great book he read : The " Kamogawa Food Detectives " by Hisashi Kashiwai

🎧 Go-to podcasts: " The Golfers Journal ," " Smartless ," " All the Smoke "

🏙️ Favorite place to go for a long weekend: " Recently visited Montreal for the first time. Would go back anytime. Incredible city with incredible people, food, public transit and that cool summer weather."

🪴 Got any pets? No pets, just a bunch of house plants.

🐺 How he ended up in the Triangle: Moved here for N.C. State's PGA Professional Golf Management Program. (Then he ended up a chocolate maker.)

🍃 If he could pass any law, it would be: Legalizing cannabis at the federal level.

• "If we can legalize it and take it off the controlled substances list, we can tap into its healing compounds," Ratto said.

✈️ Something he's looking forward to: Going back to Montreal.

🔌 How he unplugs: "No need to unplug when you are happy being hyped," Ratto said.

• Though he notes: "I did unplug once on a trip to Turks and Caicos, that was quite delightful."