If we learned anything from Willy Wonka it's that the golden ticket isn't all it's cracked up to be. And you'd best be careful what you wish for.
But if you're hoping for a sweet getaway to the Windy City, we found a golden ticket that could be just what you need.
Chicago candy emporium, Candyality -- which has two locations: 3425 N. Southport and The Shops at North Bridge, 520 N. Michigan Ave. -- offers a "golden ticket experience" as part of a package with the Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza Hotel.
The LEED-certified hotel was voted River North's Best Green Business a couple weeks ago by Chicago businesses, residents and consumers.
As you tour either location, you'll get to sample the sweet wares on offer at the classic candy store, you'll get a personality profile based on your candy loves and, if you're lucky enough to draw owner Terese Lang McDonald, you'll also hear about Chicago's surprisingly sumptuous candy history.
"Once known as the 'candy capital of the world' candy making still plays a major role in top manufacturing in Chicago," McDonald tells me during a recent tour. "Perfectly situated in the center of the country, Chicago had great access to the waterways of the Great Lakes and the rail system. Known for its varied immigrant population, Chicago became the home to Italians, Polish, Greeks, Germans ... many who came with family recipes for candy.
"Start-up was inexpensive, access to ingredients was easy and most especially the long cold winters made it easier to make labor intensive candy and short hot summers were used to ship product out. Today many top treats are still made in Chicago including Tootsie Rolls, Ferrara Pan Lemon Heads, and the famous Starlight Mints from the Primrose Candy Company on Chicago's north side."
If you want to get a taste of that history, you can start with a hotel package like the weekend Mart Plaza Candyality deal, which offers a room starting at $109, free breakfast for the kids at the hotel's Italiasia restaurant, milk and cookies for the kids and martinis for mom and dad at the Cityscape Bar -- which has amazing views of the skyline -- access to the hotel pool and, of course, the Candyality golden ticket tour, tasting and personality profile.
"People love packages, they figure they are getting a better deal, which is usually true," says the hotel's director of sales and marketing, France Langan. "We try to always have four or five to choose from and in the end it may just be the carrot that gets them to book something else, or just a room and visit the concierge."
Langan says that his team is always thinking of new package ideas to help drum up business, especially during a challenging economy.
"We have meetings every week to discuss peak periods and low periods and it’s my job to find this kind of thing. This particular package happened because someone form our e-marketing company lives near one of the stores. Last year we did a Godiva package in February to tie in with Valentine’s Day.
"We try and come up with unique packages throughout the year based on the season, based on sports, etc. We currently have our Winter Blues package which is a tie-in with the House of Blues and (includes) free entrance plus a CD."
Candyality also collaborates with The Ritz-Carlton in Chicago, which boasts a red-and-white striped candyman -- complete with treat-filled cart. The Candy Man delivers Candyality sweets to the hotel's rooms by appointment everyday from 3 until 6 p.m. and vends candy at $5 a pound.
If you don't get the golden ticket experience, be sure to stop at Candyality (hint or warning: the relatively new Shops at North Bridge location is next door to the always-insanely busy LEGO Store), to sample Chicago's first black licorice bar, "smoke" a bubble gum cigarette or try the amazing range of gummy treats and chocolates.
The store also stocks a range of candy-themed T-shirts, pajamas, backpacks and more.
When McDonald calls Candyality's golden ticket, "an experience right out of the famous story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," she's not far off the mark. Just rest assured you won't drown in a chocolate river or be swallowed by machinery.
While you're downtown, stroll north up the Miracle Mile and visit Ghirardelli Ice Cream & Chocolate Shop, 830 N. Michigan Ave., at Chestnut Street, across from the Water Tower. While most might deem Ghirardelli's assortment of ice cream and sweets a great dessert option, others have, perhaps ill-advisedly, made a meal out of the yumminess on offer.
Then, on your way out of town, hop off the Kennedy Expressway at Armitage and head west on Armitage to Margie's Candies, 1960 N. Western Ave., a vintage street-corner candy store and ice cream parlor that celebrates its 90th birthday this year. It was opened by Greek immigrant Peter George Poulos in 1921 and hasn't changed much over the decades.
"(Margie's opened) as an ice cream parlor, but it was transformed forever one night in 1933," writes David Anthony Witter in "Oldest Chicago," published by Lake Claremont Press.
"That was the night Poulous' son sat in a corner booth and proposed to a young girl named Margie Michaels. Over the years, Margie added the trademark handmade truffles, terrapins, toffees and other candies to the store's vast array of homemade ice cream sundaes, sodas, splits and shakes."
Beatles fans can also indulge in the cool display of Beatles memorabilia that is a tribute to the Fab Four's visit to the store while in Chicago to play at Comiskey Park in 1964.
On the way back to Milwaukee, exit I-94 at Highway 165 east and head toward Pleasant Prairie to tour what's called the Jelly Belly factory. But know in advance that jelly beans are not made on the premises. The building is actually a distribution center, though the motorized warehouse tour is interesting and the factory store at the end is huge and loaded with yummy treats.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
