Business: Candy shop is a sweet success for Atherton couple Business: Candy shop is a sweet success for Atherton couple (August 24, 2005)

By Andrea Gemmet

Almanac Staff Writer

So much for the low-carb craze. Young's Ice Cream and Candy Bar, a cathedral to candy couched in the nostalgia of an old-fashioned soda fountain, is doing a booming business according to the Atherton couple that opened it earlier this summer.

Husband-and-wife team Carlos Lopez and Cathy Oyster refurbished the historic Young's Drug Store building at 2020 Broadway Ave., filling it with an eye-popping array of chocolates, candies and toys, and installing a long counter where patrons can belly up for ice cream, hot dogs, coffee and pastries. After three months in business, they've already had to expand the store's hours and offerings to keep up with demand, says Mr. Lopez.

"It's becoming kind of a destination," he says.

So far, Young's is attracting nearby office workers looking for coffee and pastries in the morning, hot dogs at lunch and sugary pick-me-ups in the afternoon, but the best customers come from the dance studio down the street, Mr. Lopez says. Middle schoolers, children's birthday parties, families and Kaiser Hospital patients round out the clientele.

Mr. Lopez says he expects that the new multi-screen movie theater under construction in downtown Redwood City will draw more clients, as well as competition, when it opens.

This is not the couple's first foray into satisfying the cravings of people looking for a sugar and caffeine buzz. Mr. Lopez and Ms. Oyster also run the Espresso Lane drive-through cafe on Woodside Road in Redwood City, which they took over after several years of moving around the West. They had tired of the "corporate globetrotting" lifestyle and were looking to settle down with their two sons, says Mr. Lopez.

They were frustrated by not having a really good ice cream parlor nearby, and after doing some research, they decided to try opening one of their own. With the Espresso Lane running smoothly, they were able to focus their attentions on getting Young's started.

"Don't get me wrong, it's doubled our workload," Mr. Lopez says with a laugh. "But it's fun, because people really seem to want it."

For design inspiration, he says they used the opening scene of a candy shop in the original "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" movie, and they got lots of advice from Cathy's father, Woodside resident Bob Oyster, who owns the building and who has fond memories of old-fashioned soda fountains.

"My wife is the brains behind the whole thing -- the concept, the styles, the colors," Mr. Lopez says. "I give her all the credit. When we had the whole place stripped down to the studs, I couldn't see it, but she had no trouble."

Ms. Oyster honed her customer service skills working with brides-to-be for her former wedding consulting business, The Perfect Wedding, he says. They found that, as business partners, their complementary skills have served them well.

"She doesn't do what I do, and I don't do what she does. It's been good," Mr. Lopez says.

He says he's just finished tracking down a special kind of licorice a customer requested, and that after hearing from diabetics being treated at the nearby Kaiser Hospital, Young's began stocking sugar-free ice cream and candy. Similarly, a customer's lament that there was nowhere to get really good hot dogs inspired them to add hotdogs and chili dogs to the lunchtime menu. It turned out to be a good move -- the hotdogs sell out every day, he says.

Before they opened, they searched high and low to find the best ice cream (Loards of San Leandro), the best chocolates (Joseph Schmidt of San Francisco) and the most unique and unusual candy, Mr. Lopez says.

"We thought if we made it appealing, people would find us," he says.

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