Sweet tradition
Chocolate a busy part of Box Elder family’s heritage
Di Lewis
Standard-Examiner
12/22/08 BRIGHAM CITY — If idle hands are the devil’s workshop then Idle Isle is one step away from heaven.
The Brigham City candy store, 41 S. Main St., is full of activity from morning to night with Christmas approaching and employees are busy making and packing handmade candies.
“Christmas is just pure insanity,” said Shari VanDyke, co-owner.
If a sugary goo isn’t bubbling in a copper pot, then candy centers from caramel to cremes are being dipped in chocolate or rolled in nuts, boxes are being filled and wrapped, and cashiers greet regulars as they ring up purchases. Usually it’s all happening at once.
“I’m used to not having any time,” said Rich VanDyke, Shari’s husband and Idle Isle co-owner, who is also halfway through a four-year term as a Box Elder County Commissioner. He said he is in the store by 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. to get candies started in time for when the dippers arrive at 8 a.m.
Everyone at the store talks as they work. There’s no time to relax, especially not with a steady stream of customers from the time the store opens at 10 a.m. until it closes at 7 p.m.
Rich carefully watches the temperature on a bubbly pot of sugar,
checks to see if the pecan log base is cooled yet,
and whips water and powdered egg whites.
Everything in the store is done by a person. It’s handmade and hand-dipped, just like when Rich VanDyke’s grandparents opened Idle Isle Cafe and Confectionary in 1921.
The only thing Rich doesn’t do here? “Sleep. I don’t get to sleep a lot,” he said, laughing.
That is a price he’s willing to pay. Using machines from the 1920s and 1950s, the candies are done “old school,” said Shari. Instead of adding flavors, the taste and texture come from controlling sugars, temperatures, times and mixing. Rich said, “I just don’t believe that if it isn’t broken you need to fix it.”
He’s been working in the store since childhood, when his job was to remove clinkers and refill the stove with coal. Eventually, he learned to wait tables, cook and make candy. His great-uncle and aunt, David and LaRita Call, bought the business from his grandparents Percy and Verabel Knudson in 1974. In 1984 Van-Dyke bought the place from Uncle David.
Working both the cafe and the confectionary was too much and in 1994, Rich and Shari decided they wanted to devote themselves to making candy and sold the cafe. In 2004, they moved out of the cafe’s basement and across the street. Since deciding to focus exclusively on the sweet side of the business, Rich said the store has brought back old favorites which had been discontinued.
“Our almond creme toffee is by far the flagship,” he said. “It’s the big one. And how can you go wrong with chocolate? Anything that has chocolate in it, that’s just great.”
With dozens of chocolates to try, along with brittles, rock candy and other treats, customers have plenty of options. “If I get tired of one piece, I move on to the next,” Shari said.
People have urged them to mechanize the production, but Rich said he doesn’t want to lose quality for quantity. He refuses to mass produce and store candy for months until holidays like Christmas and Valentine’s Day. He said the store’s record production was 1,000 pounds of candy in one day, but in low-volume months like July and August he may make only a batch a week.
No matter how many people come in, Shari said it’s relationships with the customers that keep her loving the job.
Idle Isle has even shipped candies to U.S. presidents. The Secret Service would call one day before shipping to give the address, so no one would find out where the president was, Rich said.
For now there are no plans to expand and he’s taking things as they come. “It’s just been a sweet business.