Anderson’s Candy Shop
By Susan McKee
The Road Trips Foodie
One of the surprises of wandering the byways of America is discovering that there are local purveyors of handmade goodies. One of ’em is Anderson’s Candy Shop, 10301 Main Street, Richmond, Illinois. Founded in 1919 in Chicago, Arthur Anderson moved his operation to Richmond in 1926. Owned by the same family for four generations, this is a place where everything is made on site. When I was there last fall, I watched three women hand-dip chocolates. This isn’t a production line kind of effort: each bonbon was made by hand in the room just behind the shop.
My favorites were the Lars Bars — named for one of the grandsons of the founder, Arthur Anderson. Lars devised the method of shaping and layering the divinity (made with sugar syrup and egg whites) and chewy caramel that are then covered in chocolate and half-covered with pecans. It was all I could do to wait to chomp down until I took the photo (right). They come in both milk and dark chocolate and taste a bit like turtles (the candy kind, of course). On steroids.
Another of the surprises is their range of molded candies. The Andersons have collected candy molds for decades, and use them seasonally. Right now, of course, you’ll find bunny rabbits and chickens and lambs and Easter eggs and more (Easter is April 4, remember?). Last time I looked at the website, they had more than 20 different varieties of filled chocolate eggs. At Halloween, out come the pumpkins, and Christmas brings forth more Santas than you can imagine.
Yum! You just don’t expect this kind of a Road Trips for Foodies gem in a town counts hardly more than 1,000 residents! Hours Tuesday through Saturday are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Oh — Richmond is just south of the Wisconsin-Illinois border on U.S. 12.
