CROWN Candy Kitchen, St Louis JEWEL

This post on the Bottle Rockets message board, my home away from home at home, raised my antennae:

They have been in the same location since 1913 (same family.)
They make their own ice cream and chocolate.
They have a huge BLT, 1/2 lb of bacon easily.
‘Nuff said!
I had a chocolate banana malt there last weekend to infuse some carbs into my diet…
Soufside

The poster, Soufside, as in souf side of St. Louis, referenced Crown Candy Kitchen.

I felt compelled to contact the poster directly and he graciously responded, with links. I would expect no less from a bacon-and-shake loving boy. Nice.

I’ve been going there literally all my life. My mom’s best friend lived
across the street and it was her home away from home.

Each booth has a Seaburg Wall-o-matic jukebox selector thingy.


“Back In The Day”, as the kids say, they all hooked up to a central juke box so you could pick songs from your seat. The haven’t worked for 30 or so years, and still have the last juke box cards in them from the late ’60s or early ’70s.

The Reuben and the BLT are their most popular sandwiches, Souf continued. They also do a very nice Chili Tamale with Cheese and Onions.

Click here for an inside look at the sprawling candy counter. Through squints I made out Ike and Mikes. Licorice wrapped in a cracked Sunday-school-shoe pink, sweetpea green, or white, plain cold white, shell. Oh wait a minute, those are licorice snaps. Even better.

Click here for some exterior photos and milkshake info. On this site, chopped onion, the vanilla shake is described as euphoric. Now that I would like to see. Can euphoria squeeze through a straw? Crown Candy Kitchen is a real nice looking place. Plenty of street parking too, which I believe is a comment on the neighborhood

And the prologue. Click here and here for what the photographer would have seen had he turned around. Apparently someone turned around, camera to eye. These shots are beautiful, in an urban decrepitude sort of way. When the eyes of the property owners behold these sites I doubt they see beauty. Ca-ching is not the sound effect that comes to mind.

The picture of Park’s Drug on page 2 was taken from Crown’s doorway, writes Souf. I wouldn’t know, having never been to St. Louis. Sniff. I’m an armchair sandwich girl, flicking crumbs onto the carpet and wiping my mouth on the sleeve of my housecoat.