Kris
Hackney operates her sugary beach shop
with some help from Willy Wonka, Mary
Jane and a Sugar Daddy.
Staying
sweet is essential for Hackney. She
owns the Candy Kitchen, at 13711 Gulf
Blvd., one of Pinellas County's
original - and remaining - outposts for
the unusual, the revered, and the
freshest confections available. Opened
in 1950 by Curt and Helen Johnson, the
store remains close to its original
form, right down to the daily
production of Mrs. Johnson's original
ice cream recipes.
For
Hackney, 46, customer service is
paramount. She listens to what her
clientele craves and usually will stock
what they request.
Despite
its name, the Candy Kitchen also offers
a dozen flavors of ice cream - a
perennial favorite of beachgoers - that
usually vary according to season or
demand.
"I'm
not by trade an ice cream maker,"
Hackney said. "We can't make 50 gallons
of ice cream. So every day, our ice
cream is fresh, and the flavors are
still strong.
"Everyone
has a nice attitude about it. They
appreciate the fact that they're
getting something freshly made, loaded
with nuts or fruit."
Weather
plays a big role in both what people
will consume and what the Candy Kitchen
will prepare.
"We
sell more chocolate in winter than in
summer," Hackney said. "I don't think
people like to handle it" because of
the heat.
"Instead,
they buy lots of gummies."
She
makes cotton candy only in winter and
spring. And she waits until winter
visitors arrive before cranking out rum
raisin, maple walnut and butter pecan
ice cream, which in winter she "has to
carry."
"I
can't get away from it," she said.
Winter
tourists also sometimes request
penuche, also known as Virginia or
Kentucky brown sugar fudge, a type of
candy Hackney had never heard of until
people began asking for it.
"I
went through lots of old cookbooks to
find the recipe," she said.
Growing
up in Riverside, N.J., Hackney and her
siblings worked in their parents'
sandwich and soda shop.
"(We)?
were raised in the local hangout," she
said. "I personally feel there's not
enough of this (type of store)?. Malls
are fine for 13- and 14-year-olds. But
there's no place for little kids to go.
When I saw this shop, it really
appealed to me."
Hackney
has owned the Candy Kitchen for two
years - with help from her 19-year-old
son, Josh - and is adamant about
keeping its traditions intact. At 46
years old, the shop still is tiny,
although it's shadowed by the expanding
condominiums across Gulf Boulevard.
Inside, hundreds of types of candy sit
in glass jars or cardboard boxes.
Hackney
won't stock Snickers, Reese's or
Hershey bars, instead giving a home to
hard-to-find candies that have been
overshadowed by the major
manufacturers' chocolate wars. Among
them are Slo-Pokes, Chick-o-sticks,
Boston Baked Beans, Squirrel
Nut-Zippers and Pixy Stix.
The
sometimes controversial 1970s
children's favorite, Pop Rocks, sells
well in its six flavors, as do Bottle
Caps, jawbreakers and those little
colored candy buttons that come on a
plain strip of paper.
A
century ago, American candymakers
developed endless concoctions for
candy, and, by the 1920s, as many as
40,000 different candy bars were on the
scene, according to the National
Confectioners Association in McLean,
Va.
Hackney
realizes that it is that kind of
variety that spices up her store.
"It's
a neat little business," she said,
nodding toward the jars that hold more
than a dozen kinds of licorice.
Despite
the sign above the front counter that
reads "I won't budge without my fudge,"
Hackney says she doesn't really care
for the chewy concoction.
"I
come from a family of good bakers," she
said. "I love to bake at home. If I'm
going to get my calories, that's where
they'll come from."
(Copyright
Times Publishing Co. Jul 24,
1996)
