UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — In this week’s Around The Sound, KIRO 7 is giving you an inside look at how a popular candy shop in the South Sound came to be.
It’s called Old Town Delights, and it’s located in University Place.
“Everything’s handmade – caramels, truffles, chocolate bars. You name it, we can try to make it out of chocolate,” Kelly Garofolo told KIRO 7 News. She runs the shop with her husband Grant – the caramel connoisseur.
Intricately painted truffles and uniquely shaped chocolates line the shelves of the store. You can find everything from a milk chocolate Millennium Falcon to a gold-dusted sports car.
A pretty sweet idea
Kelly says her love of working with sweets started about 12 years ago at a wine and chocolate class in Gig Harbor.
Kelly, Grant, and their friend Kati tried their hand at making truffles.
“I didn’t do a very good job, but I thought – this is kind of fun.”
Inspired – Kelly and Kati decided they’d learn how to hand-temper chocolate at home.
“It took a good, probably three months to figure it out because it’s not an easy process to do,” Kelly told KIRO 7.
The pair started sharing samples with neighbors, and quickly grew a following.
They eventually gained enough customers to rent out space at a commercial kitchen.
“It’s kind of neat the way the universe just pushed us into it,” Kelly said. “We wanted a little shop like on Main Street in Disneyland where we could wave at people and make chocolate.”
The caramel connoisseur
Chocolate is Kelly’s specialty, and the caramels are her husband’s.
Believe it or not – it started with a salty snack.
“One of our neighbors put some cucumbers on our front porch, so I decided it was time to start making some dill pickles,” Grant told KIRO 7.
Kelly quickly grew tired of his newfound hobby.
“I told him, ‘Dear god, stop making pickles, I can’t stand pickles.”
He then tried his hand at pretzels and eventually shifted from salty to sweet – giving caramels a go.
“We started out slow with one or two batches, and used a recipe that my grandma used sometimes, and I think it took about five or six months, but we eventually got to a place where we were making a pretty good caramel,” Grant told KIRO 7.
They proved to be pretty successful, too.
“Kati got an unexpected phone call, a gentleman who had been gifted a caramel on a plane. It turned out to be one of the brothers who owns Haggen’s grocery stores,” Kelly told KIRO 7. “He got off the plane, and he called us and he said, ‘I want your caramels in our store.’”
Now their caramels are sold in 116 grocery stores.
The chocolates, though? You have to visit their University Place storefront for that.
A bittersweet chapter
One day, things took a turn. Kelly got an unexpected call. Kati died in a car crash.
“She never got to see the store,” Kelly told KIRO 7.
Kelly kept their dream alive. She eventually found the perfect place for a storefront.
On one of the walls hangs a photo of Kati and her chef’s coat – never to be forgotten.
“People come in and I tell them about Kati, and I’m able to keep her memory alive,” Kelly told KIRO 7. “She was a beautiful, wonderful person.”
A labor of love
Kelly says it’s no easy task to run a candy shop – but the memories she creates for her customers keeps her going.
“Every now and then, we get a call from someone who says, ‘Wow, you brought back my grandma, you brought back my mom, you are bringing back these memories, and you can’t replace that. It’s just wonderful.”
You can learn more about Old Town Delights or create a custom order by clicking here.
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