The New Adventures Of The Late - But Great - Willie Wonka
Hip-hop and slip-slash right this way.
The moment you pass through the sparkling glass doors of Powell’s Sweet Shoppe, 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 noir house, into the colorful, musical and Magical Land of Oz.
It’s literally candy to one’s eyes.
Let’s go on a magical candy tour - in a Toy Story setting - that’ll take some of you back to when you were still young and slow dancing the night away to the tune of,?“ This Boy,” of Yesterday.
The only difference is that the 1939 Yellow Brick Road is now - Candy Cane Lane circa 2005 - and - you won’t be in a hurry to find that cowardly, heartless, brainless Wizard rush on back home to beautiful 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, not too unlike Santa’s elves.
Rather, they’ll be spinning and cart-wheeling like they’re wearing Dorothy’s Candy-Apple Blood Red tapping shoes
- amid the aisles of candy, toys and soda pops 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 one is going to choose from.
Norman Rockwell, Mr. Rogers, and that venerable Danish Storyteller Hans Christian Anderson would be home-sweet-home here.
This is where those ever?elusive high arching Leprechaun rainbows starts and ends.
It has an old American and European, 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 oh so fine.?
Prior to you and your family strolling down memory lane, please verbally 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 Zooming over-head Astro-Boy's, jumping and climbing Curious George's, plenty many Rumpelstiltskins in their 19th century styled strollers, Gandalf the Wizard of Wizards and maybe even - that hard to pin down hound dog of hound dogs - Elvis P., 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 - minus the long lines . . . pleaze.
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 OC that transcends into 5,280 different products, that includes candy, gelato, toys, gifts, as well as novelty and seasonal items.
There’s an authentic 1940’s, Route 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 red, orange, blue and pink soda pop bottle caps - that keenly represents ice cubes.
The apparently endless silver lined ceiling has a variety of hanging pi?atas, colored streamers, and beach balls that have 1960’s Wham-o’s hula-hoops encircling them; remarkably resembling Saturn and its magnificent rings.
The stores owner 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, (So sorry 31-Flavors), in the store to select from, with 24 being on display and available for sale.
If you have a waistline sort of like Geppetto’s and mine - or - one in the likes of Jimmie the Cricket, (including his perpetual guilty calorie - conscious - sub-conscious) they offer “no sugar added” ice cream and some “Sorbettos,” which are dairy free.
They also have a 97% 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 Pinocchio'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, and back to the longtime favorites of Mickey and Minnie.?
Powells has a Gourmet Chocolate Section that is second to none that would make Grandma Mary 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.
Are jelly bellies your weak point - like 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, gumi worms, gumi alphabet letters, red licorice wheels, gumi teeth, gumi army guys, licorice coins, Latino 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.
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Got games / toys??
They have a monopoly on them too.
Etch-a-sketch, Mr. Potato Head, Grow a Buddha, Grow an ear, tin tea set, a bowling bunny set, ant farms, rubber horseshoe game, a steel safe with an alarm, and - self-adhesive mustaches.
Are you a Jet Setter??
Are International candies your cultural gig to keep up with the Frankenstein’s next door?
God Save (and Bless) the Queen!
RIP
They have a wide variety of tasty candies from Great Britian, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Colombia, Holland, Canada, Italy, Spain, and Poland.
You don’t have to be Knight in shinning armor or a 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 capped in a clear 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 old 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, James 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-tots 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.
Not surprisingly, Powell’s Sweet Shoppe not only cares about kids, but the community too.
They have a Sweet Awards Program that has incentives and honors kids, (8th?graders and younger) for doing good work. 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.
Parked out front the Sweet Shoppe is the Powell mobile; a crème colored former 1960s 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.
Love it!?
Randy, the owner, 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.
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…”