Dylan’s Candy Bar is the Best Candy Store in NYC, and I Wish Your Kids Weren’t Allowed Inside
Even if you’ve never visited NYC, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Dylan’s Candy Bar. It’s been featured on a couple of episodes of “Project Runway”, for one, and your mom friends have no doubt chattered away at you during soccer practice about how you just have to ride the ferris wheel at Toys”R”Us and then go to Dylan’s and let the kids fill up a bag with gummy brains, jujubes, and clodhoppers for a mere $12.99 a pound.
Going to Dylan’s is, in a word, hellish. The store is packed–both with candy and with kids–at all times, and the crowd is backed up to the door and blocking the stairs and singing along to the candy-themed music at the top of their lungs. But it’s also, in a word, amaaaaazing. Picture three floors, packed with the newest candy and also the impossible-to-find stuff from your parents’ childhoods. There’s a cafe serving cakes and milkshakes upstairs, a corral of bulk candy that takes up most of the main floor, and a bottom floor filled not only with packaged candy and homemade chocolates and fudge but also candy-related pillows, pajamas, rain boots, and more.
There are giant gummy bears and Swedish fish behind the cash registers, humongous lollipops sticking out from everywhere, and transparent staircases embedded with candy spelling out cheesy sayings. For someone who requested that her boyfriend recreate the candy room from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory for her for her last birthday, it’s pretty much my idea of heaven.
And really, the $12.99 per pound for bulk candy isn’t so bad. That’s basically what all candy stores in NYC charge, except they label their bins $3.99/¼ pound so you think you’re getting a deal. Dylan’s just says, “Yeah, our candy costs $12.99 a pound. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?” And the answer is “nothing”, because not only does Dylan’s have the most candy, it also has the best candy. Never have I ever had fresher circus peanuts than at Dylan’s.
On our visit this weekend, my boyfriend and I picked up a couple of bags of our bulk favourites for Halloween movie season (and then immediately devoured all of it in a 24-hour period) and these:
A s’mores Rice Krispies treat with graham cracker and chocolate between the layers. It was the softest, most marshmallowiest Rice Krispies treat I’ve ever had. It was also too big to fit into my mouth.
Creme brulee candy corn and blueberry cobbler candy corn. My boyfriend read about the blueberry candy corn just a few months ago while we were Googling the exact flavor of candy corn. It’s supposedly only available in Eastern Canada, so I immediately Facebooked every Eastern Canadian I know (one) and asked her to be on the lookout for me, secretly knowing that I’d spend the rest of my life blueberry-candy-corn-less. AND THEN I FOUND IT AT DYLAN’S.
The creme brulee tastes like vanilla frosting, and the blueberry cobbler really does taste like blueberries. The original candy corn flavor is still my favourite, but oh, the novelty.
Cadbury Screme Eggs. Finally Cadbury figured out that like Peeps, there’s a market for Creme Egg ridiculousness all year long. Screme Eggs taste just like Creme Eggs but have a green yolk instead of yellow. Finding these made me feel so stupid about the chocolate Cadbury Creme Eggs I’ve been hoarding in my freezer since Easter, and my BFF and I are now anxiously awaiting the Christmas and Valentine’s Day ones.
None of these specialty items seem to be available on the Dylan’s website, so please let me know if I can pick some up and ship them to you in Ohio or Louisiana or wherever. For a mere $15.99 per pound plus shipping.
11 Comments
Susan
Last time I was in NYC I got all my touristy stuff out of the way on a random Friday afternoon. Dylan’s and FAO Schwarz were magical and amazingly not very crowded. I spent way too much money at Dylan’s, but it was worth it?
I bought my kiddo and her dad a Screme Egg at the Dollar General last week (because I live in Ohio). I’m not a fan of candy corn, cadbury eggs, or peeps so I feel neglected at holidays and live vicariously through them. Can’t Lay’s make a bloody werewolf claw potato chip or something?
donuts4dinner
I’ve found Friday to be a not-terrible time, too, even after work.
I can’t believe you have Screme Eggs at places like Dollar General. Dylan’s is the only place I’ve seen them, and even then, they’re hidden in a bucket on a random shelf downstairs, as if no one cares about them. YOU HAVE EVERYTHING AND DON’T EVEN KNOW IT. No, but seriously, I’m so sorry about your cold hard candy-hatin’ heart.
Mrs. Bachelor Girl
I like how you just casually throw Louisiana in there because you KNOW we’re gonna want some of that.
I also like how the preceding sentence turned out vaguely sexual even though I didn’t mean for it to. Today is obviously a good day.
donuts4dinner
I also know where the entirety of my blog readership resides. New Yorkers seem to accidentally stumble here and then quickly leave once they figure out I’m not actually eating Doughnut Plant for every meal.
Way to class up my blog, MBG.
Kim
It’s funny, I never believe you when you talk about your love of Dylan’s, because to me it’s just a horrifically crowded candy store and I feel like the floor is always dirty. But I also have NEVER seen anything as amazing as blueberry candy corn or that rice krispie treat while there, likely because I give up too easily and go to Bloomingdales to buy shoes instead.
The London Candy Co. is my UES candy jam, though.
donuts4dinner
We should probably go one weekday afternoon, since, you know, YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO.
I still really need to go to your candy store. For whatever non-sweet things those Brits eat alongside their digestives and spotted dick.
Tracey
I love how SPOOKY Dylan’s looks in your first photo, what with the dark vignetting and DEATH lurking in the background. I’m sad I’ve only visited in the summer and never near Halloween.
donuts4dinner
I was so close to posting the picture of the two of us in the “dressing room”, but I realized I don’t think they have that anymore! They’ve really changed things around since you’ve been there, and it had been recently renovated even then. Now the downstairs is just CRAMMED with candy. You should probably come back.
I have a really nice apartment. And a 3-D TV for us to spend entire days in front of when we should be out exploring.
han
I’d get that krispy treat to fit in my chompers !
donuts4dinner
Yeah, you would. Especially if you take advantage of its marshmallowness and squish it down into the length of a football field.
Dishy
Hah! The title alone is the best, let alone the candy inside. Thank GOD we live 5+ hrs from NYC!!!