Dylan’s Candy Bar – Grand Traverse Resort and Spa

• 100 Grand Traverse Resort Village Boulevard
• Acme, MI 49690
• (231) 534-6000
• Website

We left Hop Lot Brewing Company after a delicious meal and a full morning of adventuring on the Leelanau Peninsula somewhere around 1:30.  That’s getting real close to B’s nap time and when we got back in to Traverse City, J and I were both a little surprised to see he had fallen asleep somewhere between Suttons Bay and Traverse City.  Not wanting to interrupt the nap, J suggested we keep driving to somewhere…anywhere really…just wanted to keep B asleep.

Earlier in the week, I was sending activity ideas to J and came across a Dylan’s Candy Bar in the area.  J asked me how far away that was from where we were at the time.  It was about twenty minutes which was perfect, so J suggested we knock that off the list before heading back to our resort.

Dylan’s Candy Bar is a boutique candy shop based in New York City.  Seeing a location in Traverse City looks a little odd among the other big cities Dylan’s typically calls home.   In Michigan, they have one other location at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.  There are multiple locations in New York City as well as shops in Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, and Dallas among others.

The flagship store in New York was founded in 2001 by Dylan Lauren….the daughter of fashion designer Ralph Lauren.

The store in Northern Michigan is inside the Grand Traverse Resort in Spa in Acme just to the north east of Traverse City near the Grand Traverse Bay.  The resort is just off US-31 and the candy shop is inside the Gallery Shops at the resort which has a separate entrance so you don’t have to go through the main lobby to get to the candy shop.  

We found a parking spot in the large surface lot near the Gallery entrance, but B was still asleep.  J told L and I to go in and get her something good.  If B woke up, she would join us, but surprisingly, he never did and she didn’t want to wake him.

Dylan’s is right inside the door when you go through the Gallery Shops entrance.  It would hard to miss as it doesn’t really blend in with the darker colors of the resort.  The store uses bright colors and white walls inside and out to set the mood and the store is filled with more candy than anyone could possibly eat in their lifetime.  (I hear all of you “Challenge Accepted” people out there….)

It’s hard not to be happy in Dylan’s.  The white walls I mentioned earlier are painted with bright colored candy, stools that look like peppermint candies, and large bins of sweet (and sour) treats sold by the pound.  

L was, well, to use the stupid cliche, a kid in a candy store.  She didn’t know where to start.  We sort of headed back to where the bulk candy was because J wanted “something gummy.”  L had tried to pick sour gummy worms, but J wanted just plain ones.  I put those in a bag while went and grabbed a couple of lolly pops for her self.

She had actually been really good all weekend, so I didn’t fight back when she handed me both a large circular which they call a Whirly Pop and one wrapped around a stick called a Unicorn Pop.

Dylan’s also has a line of their own candy bars and I looked over them while L looked at stuffed toys.  I didn’t see one that I had to have, but I did find something in the mix that I knew J would.  I grabbed her one of the Milk Chocolate S’Mores.  I can’t find them online anywhere, but the S’more was a graham cracker with a large marshmallow topped with a chocolate bar.  I think that was the first thing she ripped open when we got back to the car.

On the way to check out, I glanced at the cabinet next to the cash register. They had a few confections and some fudge.  I added on both a milk chocolate and dark chocolate sea salt caramel to our pile of candy plus a bar of Mackinac Island Fudge.   They didn’t have a lot of flavors, so I just chose the chocolate.

The caramel’s were for J and she loved them. The fudge was for me and I kind of wished I’d either 1.) stopped at Doug Murdick’s Fudge on the way back to town or 2.) just waited until we got back to Great Wolf and got some from the sweet shop.  The fudge from Dylan’s was made at the Original Mackinac Island Fudge Company in Zilwaukee.  It was fine, but it just didn’t have the thick, richness that Mackinac Island fudge usually has.

In addition to the sweets, I let L grab a stuffed toy to hang on her backpack, so, in total, we dropped just a little over $35 at Dylan’s Candy Bar.  Dylan’s is a different kind of candy shop.  It’s not a kind of place that you go for nostalgia.  They don’t have all the old candies you typically go to a specialty candy shop for.  Dylan’s is a boutique.  It’s a little pricier and a lot of the candy is unique to the shop.  This is my first experience with a Dylan’s Candy Bar and while I wouldn’t shop there often if I lived close to one, it is a fun treat while on vacation and something you know the kids will love.