Candyland Cottage sells retro candies in Rayne and Scott | Entertainment / Life

Gelelies in jelly, goo goo bunches, slo pokes, daddy sugar, bottle caps, freshly prepared waffle cons and candy cax families necklaces to remove the interstate 10 in Rayne and Scott for a visit to Candyland Cottage.

By reflecting on the number of travelers who visit Candyland, co -owner Stewart Laurent shares Disney World’s memories – memories of a mother from San Antonio who made a stop at the Rayne stand before continuing where Mickey Mouse and Cendrella serve magical by the scoop.

During their stand at the stand, Texas visitors discovered Candyland Cottage & Ice Cream Shoppe, where Stewart Laurent and his wife and co -owner, Jackie, collect their own form of magic and fairy dust.

A child’s paradise

Candyland Cottage is a children’s paradise. Again, the family was on the way to Disney World, which is the dream of all children.

“The parents spent about an hour and a half in the store with their children, who loved it,” said Stewart Laurent. “I was here, which is rare because I am everywhere. And as they were about to leave, their mom said:” Well, we may stop here on the way back. “I said,” Do it.

Two weeks later, the family was back.

“It was a Sunday and I was back in the store,” he said. “And the mom said,” I need to tell you something. We did everything Disney World had to offer. We also climbed the back of the dolphins, and we went to dive, but I want you to know what I heard almost every day – “Mom, don’t forget on the way back, we stop at Candyland Cottage.” “”

Stewart Laurent is silent for a while. History always the humble.

Open 20 years ago

The Laurents opened Candyland Cottage 20 years ago. Today, the store is located at 1319 The Boulevard in Rayne. A second location was added 10 years later to 109 Benoit Patin Road in Scott. The animated elves build Christmas toys per year on the location of Scott.

They are the kind of elves that once filled with department store windows during the old holiday seasons – the genre that automatically place adults on Memory Lane.

“We are going to candy shows in Chicago and are looking for retro candies and things we have never seen before,” said Stewart Laurent. “Whether it is our products or our atmosphere of service, we like to offer things that you cannot simply enter and find everywhere else. We offer types of candy unique for children and adults, like.”

But that does not mean that Hershey chocolates cannot be found among Taffy and Stuckey logs.

“We wear some of the same candies you can find in stores, but we like to move away from normal,” he said. “We like to offer things that surprise people.”

It was thus since the early 2000s, when the Laurents started with larger construction plans for a village again store in Rayne, where courtese, crafts, specialized foods and ice cream would be sold.

The village would have been related to the tourist attractions found in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, but the idea never gelled. So Stewart Laurent reduced his dream in a single store that would sell the types of candies he loved when he was a child.

They met at the camp

The Laurents met for the first time in a Mississippi youth camp camp. Stewart Laurent was an advisor, and Jackie Laurent had traveled south of his native Pennsylvania to attend.

“We became friends, then I invited him and a few others from the Pennsylvania camp for Thanksgiving,” said Jackie Laurent. “He was the only one who came. And then we developed a relationship and we got married in Pennsylvania, where we lived the first five years before moving here, because his family was from here.”

Stewart Laurent worked as an entrepreneur in Pennsylvania in the early years of their marriage.

“I put porches on people’s houses, and I was tired of working in the snow to my ankles,” he said.

And the couple moved to Louisiana to be near Stewart Laurent’s family, where his mother taught Jackie Laurent how to do Gombo and other Cajun prices.

Fudge and ice

The Fudge blocks are the specialty of Jackie Laurent these days, displayed in a glass box at the cash register, where customers can also order their favorite blue ice cream flavors in scoops, shakes, malts, tanks and banana divisions.

For those who are hungry for something more salty, the two places of Candyland Cottage offer hot dogs, chilis, sausage friends, froto pies, nachos and pepper.

Stewart Laurent also brings Candyland Cottage on the road through a train without track with tires pulled by a mini reproductive steam engine. He gives train walks during church and company events, as well as outdoor events of candy stores during the holidays.

Giant gum bear

But even the train cannot steal the projectors of the main attraction of Candyland Cottage – its candies. In addition to nostalgic candies, the selection includes giant gum bear from 5 and 26 pounds specially provided in stores by a group of millers of brothers and sisters in North Carolina.

Stewart Laurent forged a link with the brothers and sisters when a local girl celebrating her fifth anniversary asked for a giant giant giant bear of 5 pounds for her party. Stewart Laurent, promising to honor the request, went to the Candymakers’ workplace, picked up the pink bear and returned to Rayne in time for the girl’s party.

It is only a story among many in two decades of sales of candies. Customers from around the world have signed the Boutique’s golden book and upset retro candy in their glass candy museum. Children’s reactions are always a fear with a wide eyes.

It is the same fear found in the smiling face of Lane Melton, 4 years old. He and Maman Hannah Creneur stopped at the Rayne store before heading to their house in Hathaway near Jennings.

“He actually had an excursion to the zoo in Lafayette today, so we are on the way back,” said Cream. “It has already been here.”

Lane is swept away in Candy Magic while looking for a pack of smart. Rolled sugar candies are Lane’s favorite, and her research with a wide eyes evokes memories for her mother.

“I grew up here,” she said. “My mother had brought me here when I was little.”

Now she spends magic in Lane.

Candyland Cottage & Ice Cream Shoppe has two locations, 1319 The boulevard in Rayne and 109 Benoit Patin Road in Scott. The hours for the two stores are from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.

For more information, call the Rayne Store to (337) 334-7210 and the Scott Store at (337) 264-6945 or visit CandylandCottage.com.