Sampling Sweet History Of Woodhaven Chocolatier It is a remarkable photograph, capturing a moment in time many years ago. Beneath the elevated line, the store’s neon signage promises Soda and Candy. Look closely in the window and you’ll see an assortment of boxes of chocolate and candies on display. It is an old picture, taken back in the 1940s when cobblestones covered the street and trolley cars rolled up and down Jamaica Avenue. If you were standing across the street the day that picture was taken, you’d be able to walk inside and browse the beautiful display cases loaded with jellies, fudge, and cremes. After emigrating from Germany, the Schmidt family started their shop in late 1926, using home-grown recipes for making chocolate and hard candies. The chocolate was hand dipped and made on-premises by Grandpa Schmidt in the basement of the store at 94-15 Jamaica Avenue. And if you were to walk into that basement, you would find Grandpa Schmidt hard at work making caramels and dipping chocolates and mixing hot candy on his big marble table, readying it to be pulled into candy canes or ribbons or other delicate shapes. Grandpa Schmidt wasn’t alone on Jamaica Avenue – Buck & Edebohls, The Muller Brothers, Meyer’s, Neuenburg’s, Grader’s – all were popular confectionery stores in Woodhaven at the same time. But one by one, for one reason or another, the old-fashioned candy stores and soda shops began to disappear. If you stand near where that picture was taken on Jamaica Avenue today, you won’t see the cobblestones or the trolley cars, but you will see Schmidt’s Candy, still looking very much the same and still going strong almost 90 years after it opened. Walk inside Schmidt’s Candy today and you’ll find the same display cases, now antiques, and arranged inside the cases you’ll find the same impressive selection of hand-dipped and homemade candies. Nearly 90 years later, the tradition is carried on proudly by Margie Schmidt, who not only uses some of the very same recipes that her grandfather used, she actually still has some of his original utensils, including the same marble table that Grandpa Schmidt used to make the hard candies. It is this adherence to tradition and the ‘good old days’ that residents of Woodhaven are so proud of. And it is not just the luscious chocolate packages for Valentine’s Day or Easter that residents are proud of, nor is it the homemade and hand-pulled candy canes they buy each Christmas. Though Schmidt’s Candy’s endurance can be attributed to the quality of their product, what makes Schmidt’s truly unique is the feeling you get when you walk through the front door. It’s like walking back in time – the beautiful tile floor, the metal scales, the display cases – these features of Schmidt’s Candy aren’t merely old-fashioned – they’re old, they’re original, and they’re beautifully preserved. Margie Schmidt grew up around the store, and gladly talks about the old days, sharing tales of tasting freshly made candies and learning the trade. Her father had other hopes for Margie and encouraged her to become a Pharmacist, but after a year in St. John’s University she decided it wasn’t for her and sought a different destiny. When her father passed away at the young age of 64, her mother still had bills to pay and since Margie knew how to make the chocolate and the candies, she stepped in to fill the void. Over thirty years later, she’s still making the chocolates and the candies, now the owner of Schmidt’s Candy, the third generation Schmidt to make and sell chocolate and candy on Jamaica Avenue. Woodhaven has quite a few businesses with a number of years under their belt. Manor Delicatessen, which sits directly across the street, is about as old as Schmidt’s. Popp’s Restaurant opened in 1906. Walker Funeral home goes back to the late 1800s, as does Ohlert-Ruggiere. And Neir’s Tavern stretches back all the way to 1829. But Schmidt’s is unique in that there is a direct line of ownership over so many decades within the same family, from Grandpa Schmidt, to his son Frank Schmidt, to his granddaughter Margie, who carries on the tradition that says hard work 19 • TIMES, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015 This photo, dated from the 1940s, shows the exterior of Schmidt’s Candy store on Jamaica Avenue in Woodhaven. Note the trolley tracks and cobblestone in the foreground. makes for great candy. The hours are long and demanding, especially near one of the three peaks of business – Valentine’s Day, Easter and Christmas. Although the store closes during the summer – the warm weather and the candy ingredients do not mix well – it is a grueling pace for one shop to churn out so much high-quality, handmade delicacies. “I recently ordered a new box of the little paper chocolate cups, and I noticed that I had gotten my last box of twenty-five thousand cups exactly a year ago,” Margie says, explaining how many candies her hands produce each and every year. “And that’s not counting all the loose candies, the ones that don’t go into cups, the ones that go into boxes.” “So at a minimum, that’s about fifty-thousand pieces of candy that went through my tendigits, all freshly made, the old-fashioned way; the way my grandfather made it, right here in this basement, back in 1926.” In addition to the hand-dipped candy, Margie is putting in twenty-hour days molding chocolate lollipops and roses, dipping caramels and pretzels, making vanilla cremes, chocolate covered cherries, and more, in anticipation of the Valentine’s Day rush. On top of all the walk-in business from the neighborhood, Schmidt’s receives numerous visits from former residents of the neighborhood who come back for a taste of the past. For many of Schmidt’s customers, walking inside the store invokes memories from years ago, walking on the same tile floor they walked on as children, looking through the very same antique glass cases. “Even people who didn’t grow up in Woodhaven say it brings back memories,” Margie says. “It reminds them of places they grew pprreesseenntteedd bbyy tthhee WWooooddhhaavveenn CCuulttuurraal aanndd HHissttoorriccaal SSooccieettyy up with, places that don’t exist anymore.” Those who have moved too far away to visit the store in person can always call (1-718- 846-9326) or place an order online (schmidtscandy.com) to get a taste of the past. If you have any stories or photographs of Our Neighborhood that you would like to share with our readers, please write to the Old Timer, c/o Times Newsweekly, P.O. Box 863299, Ridgewood, N.Y. 11386, or send an email to neighborhood@timesnewsweekly .com. Any print photographs mailed to us will be carefully returned to you. Call Now & End Your Tax Nightmare! • Owe the IRS more than $10,000? • Being Audited? • Unfiled Tax Returns? • Wage & Bank Levies? Co-Author of the best selling book “Breaking the Tax Code” If You See Breaking News On Your Block... Contact The Times Newsweekly Call 1-718-821-7500 • Email [email protected] ©Times Newsweekly - 2014 - THETAXAD Salvatore P. Candela, EA, ATA, ABA Enrolled Agent - Tax Advisor The TaxAdvocate Group (T) 877.TAX.1040 (F) 718.894.4476 [email protected] www.thetaxadvocategroup.com
RT02052015
To see the actual publication please follow the link above