Dylan's Candy Bar

While waiting for a table at Serendipity, we walked down the block and visited Dylan's Candy Bar, located on the corner of 3rd Ave and East 60th Street. It is also just down the street from the Roosevelt Island Tram Station. 

We've both been here before, me briefly and Brian for a work event. The air inside is saturated with the sweet scent of sugar that emanates from the 7,000 types of candy that they stock. The store occupies three floors: the bottom two being full of candy and candy-themed merchandise, and the top floor holding a candy cafe that serves various baked goods, an ice cream parlor, and an actual bar. Brian had told me after his work event that the bar serves candy themed alcoholic beverages, and we looked up their menu just for fun. They offer the strawberry nerd mojito, the sour patch margarita, and the jolly rancher cosmo among others. 

I was in search of a restroom, which was located on the third floor, so that's where we headed first. Brian snapped a shot of this giant gumball machine near the cafe while he was waiting for me.

I love the stairs in the store, which are embedded with pieces of candy. Makes for a colorful, and somewhat dangerous, walkway as I wasn't paying attention to where I was headed because I was too busy looking at the candy below my feet. I'm glad Brian was there to steer me out of the way of others.

Embedded in the floor of each landing was a quote. The letters look like they were formed from red licorice. This one was my favorite.

From the third floor we headed down the stairs to the lowest floor, where we were greeted with more candy and every kind of PEZ dispenser you could ever want. Brian spent a little time looking for a Thor and Hulk PEZ, saying that these were the only two Avengers PEZ dispensers that he didn't have represented on his desk at work. He has a shelf above his desk where he proudly displays various items, including a large Voltron figure (a hand-me-down from a previous co-worker wanting to keep it in the "family"), a model Star Wars X-wing, a collection of Marvel comic character flash drives, and a Superman action figure.  He is not the only one at PCMag that does this -- they all have various knick-knacks at their work stations. It's one of the reasons that he gets along so well with his co-workers. I'll have to take a picture the next time I visit him at work to show you. 

We also found little tins shaped like the power-up mushrooms, question boxes, and bob-omb characters from Nintendo's Mario Brothers games that we thought were cute. They even had tins shaped like an Atari joystick and a space invaders arcade cabinet. 

As we walked towards the back of the room I started to smell chocolate, and my nose wasn't wrong. They had a chocolate fountain running on the counter next to trays of fresh fruit and display cases of truffles and chocolates. We were so tempted to get a chocolate covered strawberry, but just couldn't justify spending $2 on a single strawberry, no matter how much delicious chocolate was covering it.

One thing that I really liked about the store, is its giant candy decorations. It's like walking through the Willy Wonka Factory -- a definite wonderland for children and sugar addicts alike. In fact, Willy Wonka was the inspiration for the store. 

The wall behind the checkout counter on the main floor is covered with giant sized candy pieces. Can't you just feel those sweedish fish sticking to your teeth! 

 

My favorite decoration was the giant lollipop tree on the main floor.

 

I'm also a fan of the giant (plastic) chocolate bunny.

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I have a bit of a sweet tooth. I was very good and didn't purchase anything, although I saw about a dozen sweets that I wanted. However, I didn't say no when we walked by the store employee offering samples of the new air head bites. I may have accepted a second sample as we were leaving. :)

It's a fun place to visit, but always super crowded. Definitely worth a stop if you're in the neighborhood.