“Come with me and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination…” What if a crazy candy store, worthy of Willy Wonka himself were to open up smack dab in the middle of Los Angeles? It’s happened! Hollywood really is a place where dreams come true, especially if you are a kiddo (or grown-up, for that matter) with a serious sweet tooth, and your dreams come in every flavor and color of the rainbow and contain a LOT of sugar. It’s Sweet!, the newest and most ridiculously fun colossal candy store the world has ever seen.
Yucky and Sticky & Lolli’s – Oh, My!
Enter the store via musical piano key-stair steps, step on the Nestle Crunch Bar on the floor that crackles as you walk, race yourself against the Ferrari powered “World’s Fastest Gumball Machine,” sample candy at every turn, and see candy and sweets you never dreamed existed! Wander through room after room of specialty sweets: there’s Yucky (the gnarliest, nastiest and oh-so-awesomely awful candy – it even comes served in urinals and full of bugs!), Stay Puft (everything marshmallow). Rick O’Lish (licorice), Lollywood (lollipops in all shapes and sizes, of course), As If (pampered princess candy), Route 66 (a history of candy in America) and more. But if you’re in a hurry, these are the 3 rooms that you positively can not miss:
- Wonka – The WONKA Inventing Room has every Wonka Candy creation in existence as well as several new ones, like the new artisanal chocolate line which brings to life the never-before-told-story of Wonka’s amazing travels around the globe and across the galaxies. These truffles and chocolates create the flavors of outer space, county fairs and other lands. There are also chocolate pencils to chew on while thinking up your own chocolate creations…
- The Chocolate Lab – Kids can build their own chocolate bar with a customized wrapper or print chocolate buttons (kind of like M&M’s®) with a photo. You can make other chocolate creations as well, but we’ve never been able to pull kids away from choosing their own chocolate bar additions (with choices like nutella, nuts, candies, cereal, bacon, potato chips, pop rocks and even fiery cheetos–this activity can take all day!) long enough to explore the other goodies.
- Sticky – This candy from Australia is made right before your eyes. Candy sculptors can create sticky sweet art just for you, and they can even make gorgeous, colorful hard candies with your name or message straight through the candy middle!
Indulge Your Sweet Tooth
You can’t be surrounded by all this candy and not take a taste! They have a way that makes it easy to taste as you explore. In addition to offering lots of taste tests of the fresh candies they’re making, you can also get a Sweet! Candy Card. It’s a refillable card that works like cash but makes it easier for you to try the tasting machines (cool spots in the store that offer bites of candy from around the world), bulk candy, interactive games (like the World’s Fastest Gumball Machine), the Chocolate Lab, and other candy and goodies throughout the store. It’s a fun way to give bigger kids a way to pick and manage their own treat tasting – when the card is used up, they’re done!
Sweet Fast Facts
Sweet! is over 30,000 square feet of candy that has:
- 300 types of chocolate bars
- 860 different chocolate products
- 200 types of gummy candies
- 140 flavors of chewing gum
- 250 types of lollipops
- 195 pounds of chocolate tempering in the Chocolate Lab
- 200 kilos of custom hard candy created daily at the Sticky boutique
(And they do birthday parties, too!)
Getting Here and Parking Here
Sweet! validates for any purchases over .02¢, so parking is $2 for up to 2 hours. Or skip parking altogether, and take the Metro, getting off at the Hollywood & Highland stop.
Sweet! Hollywood at Hollywood & Highland
6801 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 201, Los Angeles
Phone: 323-809-4380
Hours: Sunday – Thursday from 10:00 am – 9:00 pm; Friday & Saturday from
10:00 am – 10:00 pm.
Online: www.sweetlosangeles.com
Too tempting, or must-visit? What does your family think about the new ultimate sweet emporium?
All images courtesy of Sweet! Hollywood and Meghan Rose.
