Downtown Candy Bar Stirs Up Sweet Memories

“They will remember this place for the rest of their lives,” Marsha Goins, co-owner of , says to me one afternoon as my children and I leave her candy shop on Broadway.

“They will, won’t they?” I reply, thinking back to the convenience store, Mr. Grocer, that I biked to when I was a kid. I remember the candy aisle, the dirty industrial tile floor and the unfamiliar men who worked there.

I take my kids to The Candy Bar once a week to let them spend their allowance on their favorite things. I look around at the bright colors and clean space. “This is a lot less scary than the place where I got candy when I was a kid,” I say.

“Oh, mine was scary, too,” Goins agrees. “When I was little, we had an Albanian grocer near my house. To get to the candy aisle, I had to walk past a glass case that always held a goat’s head with its tongue sticking out.”

Goins owns The Candy Bar with longtime friend Patti Coleman. They also own , a charming gift gallery around the corner on Main Street. The two friends met 20 years ago while working at Jacobson’s. They opened Enchanted Branch together 10 years later.

“A few years ago, someone mentioned that all Dunedin needs is a candy store,” Coleman tells me. “While at a trade show for our other store, Marsha and I found these great Florida candies, and we thought, ‘Maybe we should open the candy store.’ ”

I ask Coleman about her candy store memories from childhood. “My grandfather owned a soda shop. My cousin and I would go and we would spend the day with him eating as much candy as our hearts desired. It was wonderful,” Coleman says.

The Candy Bar carries a wide range of candies from retro favorites to artisan chocolates. They carry Florida candies that are great for gifts and have a tower of 25-cent candies (perfect for kids). They also do catering, so you can have a candy bar at your wedding, Bar Mitzvah or birthday. And they can create personalized party favors and corporate gift baskets.

“People walk in here, and they are filled with nostalgia from their childhoods,” Goins tells me. “Or they are creating wonderful memories to look back on, like your children are.”

And I agree with her.

Make some new memories at The Candy Bar, then review it on Dunedin Patch.

• Where: The Candy Bar, 748 Broadway Ave.
• Contact: 727-474-3783 or thecandybardunedin@gmail.com
• Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday