By Kerry Mack
Penny jars filled with candy and a selection of treats many adult customers haven’t seen in years line the shelves of Handsome Dan’s, a candy shop on First Avenue in the East Village that is designed to evoke the 1950s. Candy cigarettes, Dots, Necco Wafers and C. Howard’s Violets are among the old-school reminders of a previous era.
The shop, which is stocking popcorn and cider and offered free candy on Halloween night, serves a diverse range of customers. Although kids enjoy the candy, the shopping experience is designed with adults in mind.
Tiffany Tan, 23, an East Village resident and creator of the shop’s Yelp page, stumbled upon the store the day after it opened in April. Tan admits to visiting the shop “once or twice a week.”
“Sometimes, it gets really bad and it’s twice a day,” said Tan. “But I buy different things then, so I think it’s totally justified!”
Halloween sales are a big part of annual candy sales. More than $2 billion will have been spent on candy for this Halloween, the National Retail Federation estimates.
For Halloween, Tan, who works as a hospital nurse at night, also purchased fake IV blood bags filled with a sugary serum from Handsome Dan’s and hung them at her job.
Annabelle Hernandez, a nanny in East Village, comes in almost every day with the elementary school student she cares for. During a recent trip, Hernandez and the child debated which candies were their favorites. They agreed that they liked the car-shaped chocolates best.
“Everything here is exciting,” said Hernandez, who loves coming in to chat with the staff she has come to know, and who bought her Halloween candy at Handsome Dan’s.
The business was founded by Dan Levin, 32, who said he always wanted to own his own company, though he never imagined it would be a candy business. Levin worked in corporate sales for four years, but found it unfulfilling.
At 27, he began taking business classes at New York University’s Stern School of Business. A year later, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, he decided to forge his own path, while continuing his studies.
“I was lugging a freezer up and down Bedford Avenue, asking anyone if they would let me sell sno-cones. Luckily, one of the cafes, Blackbird Parlour, let me set up in their take-out window,” said Levin.
After about six months of selling sno-cones, he expanded. Levin opened the original Handsome Dan’s in Williamsburg in 2012.
“I figured, well, if I’m going to do it, I better do it 100 percent,” said Levin. His beloved sno-cones were then sold alongside vintage candy, gourmet chocolate and cotton candy in the shop in the Williamsburg Mini Mall on Bedford Avenue.
Most candies at Handsome Dan’s range from about $5 to $7, depending on whether the candy is being sold by weight or by the piece. One item, Classic Mary Jane Peanut Butter Kisses, is $3.49 for a box of 12.
New York City’s vintage candy market is not confined to the East Village and Williamsburg, with shops like Economy Candy and The Sweet Life on the Lower East Side, Williams Candy in Coney Island and Dewey’s Candy in DUMBO. Vintage candy is also available online.
The East Village shop is located across from P.S. 19 on First Avenue, drawing many student regulars.
“There are kid regulars, there are teenage, there’s all different sorts of ages of regulars. It’s pretty cool,” said Tessie Viola, 21, one of the store’s cashiers. Levin said the East Village shop serves hundreds of customers daily.
Handsome Dan’s sells candy cigarettes for $1.49 per box versus Economy Candy, located on Rivington Street on the Lower East Side, who sells them for 75 cents.
To remain competitive, Levin said he had to learn to be “current with the vintage,” marketing to both kids and adults. Handsome Dan’s supplies sweets for events ranging from children’s birthday parties to events for corporations like Jaguar and Kenneth Cole. Although these events do not bring in a significant amount of the shop’s total revenue, Levin said, they are critical for marketing and overall exposure.
Levin acknowledged that the transition from simply selling sno-cones to selling a variety of goods in a brick-and-mortar store was difficult. Before, all he had to worry about was, “a sno-cone maker and some ice, versus taxes and labor and employees,” he said.
“I started small which is, I think, important for people, especially if you’re just doing it on your own budget or with a little bit of help,” he said.