THE CANDY MAN CAN
The moment you pass through the sparkling glass doors of Powell’s Sweet Shoppe in Laguna Niguel California, you’ll know instantly how Dorothy and her faithful side-kick Toto felt when they stepped through the front door of their misplaced tornado driven black and white noir house, into the colorful musical and magical land of Oz.
It’s literally candy to one’s eyes.
Hip-hop and slip-slash right this way.
Let’s go on a magical candy-land tour, in a toy story setting, that’ll take some of you back to when you were still young and dancing the night away along yellow brick roads to the tune of, “ I wanna hold your hand” … of yesterday.
The only difference is that this yellow brick road is now a candy cane lane and you won’t be in a hurry to find that cowardly, heartless, brainless Wizard and rush on back home to Kansas.
The little munchkins you’ll see exploring inside Powell’s Sweet Shoppe won’t be hiding behind over-sized flowers or wearing bright colored shoes that twirl up at the tippy-toes like Santa’s elves.
Rather, they’ll be spinning and cart-wheeling like they’re wearing Dorothy’s candy-apple tapping shoes amid the aisles of candy, toys and soda pop to the music of Mary Poppins singing, “Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down… in a most delightful way…” while trying to decide which delectable flavor of ice cream or candy bar they’re going to choose from.
Norman Rockwell, Mr. Rogers and that venerable Danish storyteller Hans Christian Anderson would be home sweet home at this place.
This is where both ends of those elusive high arching Leprechaun rainbows starts and ends. It has an old American, homey, fairy tale sensation all neatly tied and bundled into one.
You’re going to see, hear and smell candy bars, ice cream, gum drops, soda pops, lunch pails, board games and other reflective treats that’ll remind you when you were 16, so beautiful, and so fine.
Prior to you and your family strolling down memory lane, please warn your young mini-me’s not to be surprised if they turn a corner and run into the tummies in the likes of Dr. Seuss’ The Cat In the Hat, or Felix that wonderful, wonderful Cat, George Jetson of the Jetson’s, Bugs what’s up dock Bunny, Bozo The Worlds most Famous Clown, Gumby and his little friend Pokey too, Astro-Boy, Curious George, Rumpelstiltskin, Gandalf the Wizard and maybe even that hard to pin down hound dog of hound dogs, Elvis baby.
This is a feel good store, where everyone can’t help but smile, where one’s imagination runs amok, a take me back deja vu ambience that makes you want to come back time and time and again; a la Disneyland when … the kids were young.
Anyone, despite their age, will have a problem trying to decide what flavor of ice cream or which candy bar they’re going to choose from.
You see Powell’s Sweet Shoppe stocks their shelves from a whooping 360 vendors nationwide, including locals in Orange County that transcends into 5,280 different products, that includes candy, gelato, toys, gifts, as well as novelty and seasonal items.
There’s an authentic 1940s Highway 66, James Dean era designed Drink Coca-Cola 5-cents, 65-gallon red-steel cooler just to your left as you enter this magical kingdom that is filled with thousands of colorful soda pop bottle caps that keenly represents ice cubes.
Seemingly floating on the surface of the pop caps are old-fashioned bottled sodas in the likes of Dad’s old-fashioned root beer, Ginger ale, Bubble Up, Seven-Up and Nesbitts orange crush. You’ll find cold versions of these soda pops and other carbonated flavors of choice in a real cooler to your far left.
The apparently endless silver lined ceiling has a variety of hanging pi?atas, colored streamers, and beach balls that have 1960s Wham-o’s hula-hoops encircling them; remarkably resembling Saturn and its magnificent rings.
The stores owner, Randy and Sally Emry, have their picture inside the cockpit of a bi-plane that is suspended from the ceiling, which depicts Randy’s hobby and passion; which is a sky pilot.
Just under their magnificent flying machine is the ice cream … case.
Oh, Momma Mia their pure Italian gelato inventory alone has 40 flavors, (sorry 31-Flavors!), in the store to select from, with twenty-four being on display and available for the sale.
If you have a waistline sort of like Geppetto’s and mine or one in the likes of Jimmie the Cricket, (including a perpetual guilty calorie-conscious -conscious) they offer “no sugar added” ice cream and some “Sorbettos,” which are dairy free.
They also have a 97 percent fat free Banana Walnut Lite. Popular flavors of OC have shown to be the Crème Brule, Pistachio, Spumoni, Peanut Butter and Chocolate, Camelo Chocolate Crunch, Chocolate Hazelnut, Dark Chocolate, Burgundy Cherry, and Cookies and Cream. All of your little unique handcrafted Pinochle’s will love them all!
Got Pez?
There’s a wide selection of Pez characters that’ll be hard for your little hobbits to choose from. Those gooseneck square candy dispensers don the heads of all you favorite cartoon/animated characters. They range from the frowning chef of Ratatouilles to the menacing Darth Vader, Popeye the Sailor Man, (including his lovely sidekick Olive Oil) and back to the longtime favorites of Mickey and Minnie.
Powell's has a Gourmet Chocolate Section that is second to none that would make Grandma See’s cry with envy and desire, simultaneously. These carefully individually wrapped candies, located behind a luminous glass case, are handmade by a small Chocolatier in Healdsburg, California.
They have toffee, Haystacks, Turtles, Honeycombs, Smores, Peanut Brittle, Fruit Slices, Rocky Roads, M&M Cups, Almond Bark, 20 types of Truffles, Peanut butter Cups, Chocolate covered Pretzels, Chocolate Covered Oreos, Carmel Squares, Fudge, Belgian Sand Dollars, and Peanut Clusters to try to choose from.
Need lunch pails with a hot/cold thermos for school, work or just play?
They have them too. How about one with Woody and Buzz Light-Year of Toy Story, or Superman, Batman, Leave it to Beaver, John “The Duke” Wayne, Hawaiian Punch Puncher, the infamous but venerable Hostess Ding Dong King, Dora and Diego, Scooby-Do, Ozzie & Harriet or just Archie and his Gang?
Whew!
Are jelly bellies your weak point? They're mine!
Well you found your sweet spot.
You can choose from such tangy colorful neon flavors like; root beer float, bubble gum, Dr. Pepper, sizzling cinnamon, tutti-frutti, caramel corn jelly and more.
Does your sweet palate prefer the gumni chewy candy kind?
How about some blue sharks, root beer barrels, gummi worms, gummi alphabet letters, red licorice wheels, gummi teeth, gummi army guys, licorice coins, Mexican hats, black licorice pipes, sour patch kids, and gum drops!
They also have a kaleidoscope of M&M chocolate candy colors that melts in your mouth and not in your hands, that you’ve never bared witness to before. You can bag you own gold, light purple, teal green, dark pink, aqua green and maroon favorites too.
Got games/toys?
They have a monopoly on them too.
Etch-a-sketch, Mr. Potato Head and Slinky dog key chains, Grow a Buddha, Grow an ear, tin tea set, a bowling bunny set, ant farms, rubber horseshoe game, a steel safe with an alarm, self-adhesive mustaches, interstate highway bingo, Marvin’s magic wand, the amazing high-bounce pinky ball, wild west play set --- among many others.
Are you a jet setter?
Are International candies your cultural gig to keep up with the Frankenstein’s next door?
God Save the Queen!
They have a wide variety of tasty candies from Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Colombia, Holland, Canada, Italy, Spain, and Poland. You don’t have to be Knight in shinning armor or a swooning Juliet to eat them.
Talking about candy bars- the selection to try and choose from is simply supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
They run the gambit from Abba Zabba, Old Faithful Peanut Clusters, Bit-O-honey, Choc-aid chocolate Bandages, Original moon pies, Cotton Candy in a Jar, toxic waste hazardously sour candy, Pucker Powder - to - Rocky Road, Milky Way, Snickers, Starburst, Big Chunk and on and on and on.
Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder is forever being showcased on a flat big screen with three movie-theatre seats that appeared to have been borrowed from the Edwards theatre just up the street. You can sit down while you catch your breath and watch a couple scenes of Mr. Wonka in his red top hat and cane row-row-rowing his boat in his merrily gentle chocolate lake.
This is an ideal place to stock up your sweet teeth favorites just prior to seeing new movies like Disney’s Beverly Hills Chihuahua or the new spy thriller; Bond, J-a-m-e-s Bond.
Or, just sit outside in the provided tables and chairs and watch the sun make its daily trek overhead.
If you have some younger tater-totters and their birthdays are right around the corner, then the Powell’s “Party Room,” located at back of the store, IS THE PLACE to hold it.
The walls, ceilings, tables and seats are all richly decorated with candy colors with puffy cotton colored clouds suspended just under the ceiling that is only surpassed by the floor design that has stepping-stones being one of your favorite candy bars. It’s a true diorama.
The party room has a painting of a 15th century castle much like from Shakespeare’s Hamlet scene.
The castle is surrounded in the background with marshmallow peaked mountaintops that have oversized red cherries sitting on the very tip-top of the peaks. In the foreground is a multi-colored candy cane drawbridge connected to the castle over a moot with Pepperidge Farm gold fish swimming in the pond.
To the right of the castle are forest trees with smiling lemon drops each with bow ties hanging about the branches with gummy bears standing, among a grove of impaled of lollipops, in a-look-a-like Robin Hood/Little John black-forest with a sign stating, “Please Feed the Gummy Bears.”
The pre-planned activities for birthday parties are second to none. With a basic party of 8 little rascals, the princesses and princes to-be each plays Powell’s Palace, goes on a thrilling scavenger treasure hunt, makes a candy lei and receives a small gelato and retro soda.
Not surprisingly, Powell’s Sweet Shoppe not only cares about kids, but our community too. They have a Sweet Awards Program that has incentives and honors kids, (8th graders and younger) for doing good work.
Sweet.
They offer achievement awards for reading, chores, citizenship, sportsmanship and being a good patient. Children are awarded with a certificate of achievement, which can be turned in upon your next visit to Powell’s.
The little rascals get to choose one of the candy items, which will appear at the bottom of each certificate. Go to www.powellssweetshoppe.com, go to the Sweet Programs heading and click on the Sweet Rewards icon. There are five ready to print Reward Certificates.
Parked out front the Sweet Shoppe, most of the time, is the Powell Mobile, a crème colored former 1960’s California era Helms bakery truck that has the Powell logo sprinkled all over it.
When I asked the owner about the trucks use, it seemed that I had hit another passion of his. The Sweet Shoppe uses the truck for good-will charity events around our community. The most recent one being the Sept. 7, 2008 Race to Walk 5-K run to benefit the healing and well being of a 17-year-old south Orange County athlete who was partially paralyzed.
Randy seemed as interested in his charity work for the local community as he holds for his candy store.
Powell’s’ Sweet Donations Fundraising Program is a way for organizations, individuals, and other unique causes to raise funds while enjoying purchases at the Sweet Shoppe. Powell’s gives back a percentage of every purchase.
The fundraising program doesn’t cost anything. No start-up costs that you’ll find with most other fundraising drives. You have complete control over the date of your event and how many flyers you give out, giving you full control over the amount of funds you like to raise. More details are on their website.
Upon exiting Powell’s Sweet Shoppe with my wife and our two Tasmanian Devils, Radio Powell was playing a Sammy Davis Jr. song from yesteryear.
Sammy suitably summed up our visit and sentiment with the lyrics;
“Who can take tomorrow, Dip it in a dream, Separate the sorrow and collect up all the cream, the candy man can, the candy man can ‘cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good…”
Powell’s Laguna Niguel Sweet Shoppe is located at 27000 Alicia Parkway, Ste E. You can contact them at 949-831-9652 or email them at [email protected].