The New York Sweet Spot

Until maybe 20 years ago, I had never heard of See's candy. But I was going to a conference on the West Coast and someone at work asked me to bring back See's candy. What candy? "See's, it's famous out there and it's good." Okay, if you say so.

And it is good, if somewhat hard to get here on the East Coast other than through the mail. There is ONE Sees' s candy store on ALL of the East Coast, and it's on West 8th Street, just east of 6th avenue on the south side of the street. Specific enough for you?

It's a small store that if you're walking fast you will not even notice it. It's been thee several years now, and when I can, I get off at Astor Place from the No. 6 train and start to walk west on 8th Street.

Eighth Street would be a decent definition of the start of Greenwich Village. When you get to 5th Avenue and look south you can see the Washington Square Arch in Washington Square Park. Double decker, open air tour buses glide through the area.

This is NYU country, and their banner flies from several buildings. You pass the street with antique names like MacDougal, Greene and University Place. But, then you find it, See's. A tiny storefront that every time I go there I think they're no longer going to there.

Once upon a time candy shops were prevalent in NYC. And I don't mean the candy stores in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens that sold newspapers and maybe had a bookie in the back. I mean a boxed candy place. Chocolates, not Baby Ruth bars.

There was Barricini and Loft's, two outfits that merged and eventually went away in 1994. There was Schrafft's. and Fanny Farmer. Fanny Farmer was a Midwest brand that was easily accessible from the lower level of Grand Central Terminal. There is a Neuhaus on Vanderbilt Avenue at the corner of Grand Central Terminal, a tiny store you can barely turn around in. There is La Maison du Chocolat in Rockefeller Center and Moynihan Train Hall; decadent, and outrageously expensive.

Belgian chocolate? Leonides on Madison Avenue. But these are so upscale that you might feel guilty  having one, just one, because these are expensive places. See's is for the hoi polloi.

Godiva made an appearance for a while; pricey, but they too eventually closed their stores. Of course you can buy boxed candy in Macy's and drug stores, but if you rely on Russell Stover or Whitman's  from  CVS you're not really eating good chocolate. Their stuff is awful.

If you watch Turner movies from the 1940s invariably there is a Lothario or Stage Door Johnny who is wooing a show girl with a box of long-stemmed roses and a box of candy. Candy and flowers. The way to a girl's heart and her bedroom.

The great poet Ogden Nash penned a faster formula for wooing and make up sex when he wrote:

The Ice Breaker

Candy is dandy,
But liquor is quicker

I was once on a subway with a colleague when I spotted a young man holding onto the pole who was carrying a small bag from Victoria's Secret and another bag from Godiva. I commented that if things go well for this guy, he should be very tired in the morning, My colleague agreed.

The usual combination was always candy and flowers. Once upon a time at the family flower shop my father got what was not a bad idea of selling Whitman's chocolate along with flowers. Whitman's  provided us with a rather huge peg board heart to display the boxes and started us off with a variety of gaily decorated boxes of chocolate, along with maybe 50 small boxes of Whitman's sampler chocolates that would sell for 25¢.

Sales of chocolate were not good. I don't think we ever even sold  out the first shipment. Eventually, I ate all the small boxes of chocolate and paid nothing for them. My father wondered where they all went. Silly question.

I'm currently reading Walter Isaacson's doorstopper of a biography of Elon Musk. He relates the story that when Elon was wooing Tallulah Riley, who would become his second wife, and who he would re-marry after their divorce, with a delivery of 500! roses.

500! roses. I have no idea what this would look like. We sold a dozen roses often, and I delivered them in a long, waxy cardboard box with the shop logo on it, with the stems sticking out of one end because of the way the roses were displayed in the box, but 500?

How were they delivered? With a forklift? And how did Tallulah put them all in water? Prop them up in the bathtub? I've never seen 500 in one place other than at a 28th street wholesaler as they were delivered in wooden crates.

The 8th Street See's is a true candy emporium. They get a fresh shipment every Thursday. There are loose pieces and like build a bear, you can build your own assortment. We like all dark chocolate soft centers and got a one pound box filled at the store.

See's is a pure West Coast candy. When you get off a plane in Arizona or California there are boxes of See's at the airport. The son of Mary See built a candy company using her recipes.

And who in whole wide world owns See's? The Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet. But you knew that, right?

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