Eye Candy Meets Real Candy in La Conner, Washington

Walking into O’Neil’s Confectionery & Soda Fountain on La Conner’s 1st street is like stepping into a living museum. Stan O’Neil opened the candy shop, which sells an assortment of food including house-made fudge, chocolate, sea foam and peanut brittle, in May 2024. A longtime collector of antique soda fountains, juke boxes, display cases and candy equipment, he stocked it with the treasures he’s accumulated after years of scouring the country for historic relics.

“Our building dates from 1907 and I wanted visitors to feel like everything has been here since that time,” he explained. He gestured to a soda fountain back bar that dates from the same year and spent a century in Atlanta, Arkansas, before O’Neil moved it to Washington State. Before opening the La Conner store, he ripped out the carpets, installed a classic penny tile flooring and stocked his antique display cases with intricately designed glass candy jars, chocolate molds, milkshake-making equipment and an array of fascinating, historic candy paraphernalia.

There’s lots of candy in the store, both O’Neil’s house-made selection and hard-to-find classic candies like Necco wafers, Reed’s butterscotch and root beer candy rolls and Claes old fashioned hard candies. But the store’s eye candy is just as compelling as the real candy.

“Those marble soda fountains can still dispense syrups, so they work to this day, but they require so much equipment that they’re mostly for decoration now,” he said as he lifted soft peanut brittle from the display case to a box for a waiting customer.

“I love the history,” he added. “This furniture was made with such quality and craftsmanship, and part of the pleasure of owning it is putting it on display. Customers walk into my store and say, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen anything like this!’”

O’Neil’s day begins at 6:00 a.m., when he enters the store to start making chocolate and fudge. The store opens at 10:00 and closes at 7:00 p.m. daily, serving a range of food: pizza, sandwiches, hot dogs, coffee, ice cream and sorbet, and its broad candy selection. In summer, guests dine outside in the shade of the peaceful back courtyard; the rest of the year they settle into comfortable booths that date from 1920.

History is very much alive at O’Neil’s Confectionery, a labor of love that delivers so much more than a sweet fix. At Christmastime, O’Neil pulls out a 35” antique Santa Claus chocolate mold and uses a ribbon candy machine built in the 1880s to churn out special Christmas candies. At Easter, the antique bunny mold is put to good use.

“I’ll never get rich from doing this,” he admitted with a shrug. “But I want my customers to see this equipment and furniture in all its grandeur, still working and still an object of handmade beauty, over a hundred years since it was first put to use.”

Indulge at oneilsconfectioneryandsodafountain.com.

Plan your visit to the charming town of La Conner at lovelaconner.com.