The Candy Bank — Restaurant in Mandeville

I was initially drawn to this place as a cool family outing spot. Having an almost 3yr old on the Northshore has its challenges, namely finding fun inexpensive spots to get us all out of the house. This was not the place for that. Don't get me wrong. The Candy Bank is gorgeous, it has ample parking and is in the most gorgeous little lakeside neighborhood, but it is nowhere to take a rambunctious toddler. The decor is fabulous, very nestolgic, vintage with beautiful romantic touches of etched brass and flowers. There are all kinds of wonderful touches that make this adorable, little eclectic spot so attractive for adults, young adults, maybe teens but not kids. This place seems like the perfect spot to go on a cute little date no matter which seemed to be the clientele I noticed who seemed to be having a great time. The only other family with kids there seemed the same as us, frustrated, on edge, and just ready to go. Now you're probably asking why, why on earth would a candy store not be suited for kids? The reason, the copious amounts of unsecured glass, the vintage toys all around that are for looking at and not playing with are definitely huge issues when you have small kids in tow. My 2yr old first thing, he did was run around grabbing the heavy glass lids off the Jars while ran behind him gently putting them back. At the same time an overly "helpful" employee came from behind the counter trying to directly address my 2yr old. I then had to inform the employee to stop chasing my 2yr old and demanding that my child listen to him because he's 2 and won't fully comprehend you nor did I feel comfortable with this guy talking addressing my kids instead of me. Also, he was just getting in the way of me catching my toddler, and what's he gonna do? Put his hands on my kid? Absolutely not. So back up, let me wrangle him and address me the adult please. But the man's entire speech was about the copious amounts of glass and how to handle things so they don't break. Imagine, an entire shop full of glass that you're meant to handle, I mean it's definitely esthetically pleasing to look at, but the actual functionality is terrible for a candy shop. I could go on but this is already long so I'm just going to end by saying what in the actual heck is up with all the afro-centric art?! The owner is not African American, the community is predominantly white, like I just found it baffling. I don't know if maybe they have a preference for African Americans or they're supporting a certain local artist who features African American figures, or maybe they have African American family but it was kind of offensive, off-putting and gave off black-face vibes which made me really...

I think the candy bank is a great business, and it offers a wonderful candy experience! But today I experienced an uncomfortable situation, which pushed me to leave a review (not something I usually do). When entering the bank, we (my boyfriend, 5 year old nephew, and myself) were greeted by the male employee. I have seen him working there for the past few years, and I have never had an issue with him until today. Very quickly into our arrival, this male employee was almost following us around the store. My boyfriend and I couldn’t tell if he was 1)watching to make sure we weren’t thieves or 2)being too into his customer service. After being hawked around the store by this employee for a few minutes, my nephew was asking my boyfriend and I questions about specific candies. The male employee kept interjecting himself to answer my nephew’s questions before my boyfriend or I could answer him. At this point, my boyfriend and I both felt extremely uncomfortable about his constant interjecting and hovering that it pushed me to reposition myself between my nephew and him. I did this with hopes of him leaving us alone. The level of “get out of my face” we felt made us just ready to get OUT of the store. After leaving the store, we discussed we both had wanted to buy another $20 worth of treats before leaving, but the employee’s behavior chased us away. We actually could not wait to get ourselves and my nephew away. Again, I usually don’t complain to businesses when I’m unsatisfied, because I get sometimes things just don’t go as planned, but today was a boundary crosser for me. I’m hoping the owner of the business will see this message. See this message and tell the male employee to step off of his customers. I am not saying this young male employee had foul or perverse intentions, especially in today’s climate, but the level of discomfort we felt through his actions was not okay from a consumer’s nor a...

The fresh candies in jars and chocolates here are really great. They also have a nice selection of specialty sodas and ice cream. Prices are kind of high but fair for the level of quality and selection available. Just a side not don't mix your chocolate and sour stuff in the bags for weigh in the ch oclate is much more expensive by weight. The down side for me was I took my family in and spent over $100 on candy drinks and such. I bought a bag of the super long twizzlers which are factory sealed. They tasted super funny and the bag had dust on it. They were not expired. I contacted them to see about replacing them or what options I had and they just said they don't do returns. This is bad business to me as I would've definitely swapped them for something but also would've bought more and would be inclined to bring my wife and kids back. basically if you are buying non store candy/chocolate/drinks your experience is likely to.be excellent but if you but anything prepackaged be wary those twizzlers were like $11 which is already a lot so not being able to swap them when they were bad is no good. Check out those sour strip things they are...