Having a Blast Running RocketFizz

After the cartoon series Mixed Nutz ended its run on public television, cartoonist Dustin Ellis realized he needed to find work with a more dependable income. He stopped by the Burbank store and suddenly realized he’d found it.

“When I knew I wanted to go into business and thought about selling shoes or sandwiches, it all made me sick to my stomach,” Ellis said. “But then I walked into one of these, and it’s like putting a bunch of Pop Rocks in your mouth. You have to smile!”

The Sherman Oaks RocketFizz on Ventura Boulevard, open since last December, is one of 13 in California, plus five more in Arizona, Nevada and Nebraska. All follow the same model: retro and hard-to-find candy and sodas, plus decorative tin signs and assorted toys, displayed in a high-energy, colorful environment on bare plywood shelves.

The stores began in Camarillo, the brainchild of founders Robert Powells and Ryan Morgan, whose website (rocketfizz.com) declares that each store owner is hand-picked and trained at the “flagship” Camarillo store.

“Yeah, I’m in an exclusive club of about 20 members,” Ellis said, adding that he was grateful for the start-up training he received. His background as a film student at Cal State Northridge didn't prepare him for running a store.

That’s why he enlisted his cousin, Rusty Hadjilou, a CSUN graduate with a degree in finance, as his business partner.

“I decided I liked the business because when people come in, they’re happy,” Hadjilou said. “They don’t come in to argue with anyone or to have a problem fixed but just to have a good time.

“So now, I’ve got a fun business, plus I get to incorporate the skills I went to school for,” he added.

Hadjilou handles marketing, records management, inventory and analysis of where the company is headed. Meanwhile, Ellis hires the staff and brings creativity and new ideas for the business.

Customers include children who love the fully stocked and varied taffy bins. Adult customers come in seeking British, Japanese, German and Swiss candies. Ellis said the store has the largest selection of Japanese candies outside downtown Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo.

For adults seeking out candies they remember from childhood, there is the Goo Goo Cluster, a candy bar that began in 1912 in Nashville, TN, and is considered the first “combination” bar: a round mound of caramel, marshmallow nougat, roasted peanuts and milk chocolate.

Or Sifers Valomilk Candy Cups, which began in 1903 in Iola, KS, and feature a milk chocolate cup with a “milky” marshmallow center.

The Sherman Oaks store is soon to carry a line of Mexican candies, plus Israeli sweets.

The store’s large selection of sodas includes Moxie, which originated in 1884 and predates Coca-Cola, the RocketFizz line of sodas and sodas with unique flavors, such as bacon.

Ellis and Hadjilou are enthusiastic about their offerings, bringing a large dose of the fun to their store. Both separately co-own other RocketFizz stores, Ellis with a Woodland Hills location and Hadjilou with the Pasadena and Westlake Village stores.

Despite the recession, candy sales nationwide have increased about 4.2 percent over last year, according to figures released this month by the National Confectioners Association. Hadjilou said he understands why.

“Given the times we’re in, candy makes people happy,” he said. “It goes a long way for a couple of bucks.”

RocketFizz, 14613 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks.