By Amy Zimmer
DNAinfo News Editor
CARNEGIE HILL — His Manhattan friends would always ask Jigs Patel, a restaurateur from London, to bring them back British chocolate candy — Cadbury's, Terry's, even Kit Kats — whenever he crossed the pond. They said chocolate candy from England tasted better than those in the states.
Eventually, Patel decided to table his plans to open a bar — the reason he'd come to New York in the first place — in get into the sweets business. He opened London Candy Co. on Saturday, just in time for Easter egg basket shopping sprees.
"I realized there are way too many bars but not enough candy stores," said Patel, who, as a child at a fancy prep school in London, would sell candy under-the-table from his father's shop to classmates who weren't allowed to patronize the stores while in uniform. "The school didn't want you to tarnish its reputation."
Patel is hoping school kids here don't have those rules. His new shop, at the corner of Lexington and East 94th Street, is directly across from a school bus stop.
In less than a week, London Candy Co. already has hosted a birthday party for candy-crazed kids and won adult fans drawn by serving the trendy Stumptown Coffee, which is not sold anywhere else on the Upper East Side. (The closest place to get the coveted brew is at the company's shop in the uber-hip Ace Hotel on West 29th Street, Patel said.)
It will soon start selling mini-cupcakes using English chocolate and is toying with developing a line of milkshakes with candy, too.
"The difference between American chocolate and English is that corn syrup is used minimally in England," Patel explained. "There are very strict rules and guidelines to making chocolate. Things can't be added to it that give it a longer shelf life." Things like paraffin wax, which he said some U.S. companies use.
"A lot of Brits say that American chocolate tastes waxy," Patel said.
"I'm not a big candy eater, but I've eaten Kit Kats the last two days," said Bill Coleman, 53, an architect who lives nearby. He added, "The coffee is the best on the Upper East Side. I'm already a regular."
