A Chocolate Covered American Dream

By Nicole Meadors

Jim Vasilow is a third generation confectioner whose candy shop is located just around the corner from the 7th Street Park on Columbia Street in Hudson. Not unlike Roald Dahl’s famous candy maker, Willy Wonka, Jim Vasilow runs his candy shop with whimsy, ingenuity, creativity and plenty of charm. While Jim is not as reclusive, eccentric or fantastic as the fictional Mr. Wonka, there's still an undeniable sense of magic that radiates from Vasilow's Confectionery.



The store has an old fashioned feel. Hand picked individual truffles and creams line the display cases. There are cellophane bags of swedish fish (named "Kinderhook Fish" for a local touch). Red and pink Valentine boxes, chocolate heart molds and other sentimental candy combos fill the front windows in anticipation of the February holiday push. White chocolate covered popcorn and original handmade candy bars with marshmallow, sugar wafer and caramel centers (named after the owner's dog Mookie) are store specialties. It seems like everything is drowning in chocolate. Pretzels, nuts, cherries and fruit slices have all been lovingly dipped in deep pools of dark and milk chocolate, that are bubbling in the back room.



When I pass through the casual swinging wood doors that divide the store in front and the chocolate factory in back, I immediately feel like I've been invited into a secret society (which is silly, because Jim encourages all his customers to take a peek). I sit down next to a long rectangular marble slab where Jim, his fiancé, Kate, and his best childhood friend, Kevin, still occasionally hand-make chocolates the way Jim's grandfather used to do.



These days, to save time and to fill demand, Jim uses a fascinating conveyor belt-like candy machine to make the chocolates. I can't take my eyes off it. Kate sits on a stool at the edge of the conveyor and makes little designs on top of the chocolate covered crackers that pass by her, one after the other, after the other. Then she unfolds each cardboard box one by one and places the candies inside. Despite the low hum of the machine, there's a sense of calm and satisfaction in Jim's miniature, sparkling candy factory.



The original Vasilow's Confectionery was located at 505 Warren Street and was established in 1923 by Jim's Greek immigrant grandfather and his great uncle. "Everybody in the family was into candy making," says Jim.



After serving Hudson Valley candy lovers for forty-six years, with additional locations in Catskill and Nyack run by other family members, Jim Vasilow's grandfather and uncle decided to retire in 1969. Hudson was left bereft of Vasilow’s delicious homemade, hand-packaged candy, until two years ago, when Jim decided to change careers. He sold his successful tool company followed the calling of candy making. After a life of not being perfectly happy selling tools (Jim confesses he used to dread getting up every morning), Jim Vasilow found the freedom and the guts to re-order his life and to follow his family passion. "I was very fortunate that I was able to sell my tool business so quickly. It was almost like destiny, like a fairy tale the way everything fell into place. It was just like pieces in a puzzle that fit together at the right time," says Jim.

After spending a couple of hours in the store talking to Jim, my impressions regarding his success became more of a meditation about choice and the dream of enterprise, more than about practical business. The store's charm relies on the fact that Jim loves what he does.



Jim recollects, "My father worked in my grandfathers’s candy store growing up, but wanted no part of it. He ended up as the president of one of the manufacturing companies locally. At one point in my early twenties, I had asked him, what if I got into the candy business? Basically, he discouraged me. He said it won't work, it's long hours, you'll kill yourself." Jim proved the skeptics wrong. His Hudson candy shop is a true success, recently honored with a Historic Hudson Preservation award.



He says, "I was maybe twelve when my grandfather's store closed, and I remember a lot of it. I used to hang out there quite a bit. At that point, there was no such thing as Godiva Chocolate or at least not around these parts, there wasn't. My family was practically giving their candy away. Part of the reason why my family closed the store, despite the fact that they were retirement age, was the whole strip mall thing. It was the blight of the inner city. Everybody was moving out. So there just wasn't the traffic like there was even ten years prior. My grandfather and his brother were successful and lived comfortable lives but it got to the point where they were in their seventies and ready to retire.”



Jim goes onto to explain how he wished his mother and father would have saved utensils and supplies from the store when his grandfather sold the building. These days, a tin four-foot bunny mold like the one his grandfather used is worth $8,000 or more. "We do have some of the original signage and molds," says Jim, "but for the most part everything went." Recently, however, the original 1923 storefront windows were recovered. Dick Koskey, a local neighbor, came in a month ago and announced that he had the original plate glass windows from the front of the store. Jim’s eyes light up as he shares the discovery and his plans to install the new/old windows.



Born in the Hudson Hospital and raised in Greenport, Jim attended college in New Paltz but decided to withdraw the last semester in order to help his father with out with the tool and die business (a new venture his father had purchased upon retiring). "Needless to say, I was there for twenty years. Basically it was my Dad and I running this industrial tool company. What did I know about tools at the time? My Dad passed away in 1996 and I continued on, but never enjoyed the work. It just wasn't in my blood to do that," explains Jim.

The story that comes next is the quintessential American dream. Jim’s tale is the story of coming into one's own later in life and making the most of his past and his future. Jim says, "Kate, my fiancé, and I had gone camping one weekend and it started pouring the last morning we were there. We threw everything into the truck, and we went into the Columbia Diner. By the time we finished breakfast the sun was out. We took a walk down Warren Street. We walked past Sutty's, a well-known soda fountain, and I looked into the window…and I thought to myself boy, I miss that. One thing led to another. I mean it was like I had been bitten by a bug. I started researching places locally. It just became more and more of an obsession. Candy making was what I wanted to do."



Next, Kate and Jim attended a candy industry trade show in Philadelphia. "Every supplier under the sun was there. It was like a flash back. I'm seeing 'Peter's Chocolates' that my grandparents used. They had the copper kettles and candy making machines. I didn't have a clue where to buy something like that, so it was invaluable information," he says.



At the show, Jim met a woman who taught candy making courses. A few weeks later he went to Pennsylvania and spent five days with her. "I didn't know what a truffle was," says Jim. "She taught me a bunch of different recipes and then more than ever I knew that this was something I wanted to do. So I came back and I started actively looking for a building. I also continued taking candy making courses in locations such as Chicago; Rhode Island; Boston; Erie, PA, and Texas."



Ever since then, Jim has worked to grow the business and to reach out to the local community. "We've done a number of presentations for the Rotary Club, the Christian Women's Group and the Girl Scouts. We also have collaborated with the Pleshakov Center, connecting with Bus Tours. The tourists see a concert at the Pleshakov Center then we do a presentation in the factory on how to make peanut brittle. The tour groups love to watch the candy making process from beginning to end.



As the history part of our interview winds down, I ask Kevin and Kate, who are still working diligently over a cascading waterfall of chocolate, to explain what it’s like working at the shop. There is a stifled roar of laughter. Kevin is reluctant to talk so Jim speaks for him, “Kevin and I grew up three houses away from each other. From the time we were able to walk and interact, we've known each other.” Then Kate laughs and with a sly smile confesses, “We have a high pain threshold.” She says, “It's a fun atmosphere. The kids surprised Jim the other day by using our candy legos to make sculptures at home. Jim walks me over to the haphazard light pink, yellow and blue lego sculptures. There’s one that spells out “Rat's Rule” (which is an inside joke). There’s one that looks somewhat like the Rip Van Winkle Bridge and there’s a fancy race car (if you really use your imagination). Clearly, the kids love working at the shop and they must love Jim too, to create such a loving and inventive display of affection.



When I point this out, Jim says, “How can you not have fun in a candy store—aside from the week before Christmas, Valentine's, and Easter?” He removes a chocolate heart from a plastic mold and explains how they intend to fill the hollow insides with chocolate truffles.



When I ask if they all still love to eat candy, Kate says she eats the dark chocolate peanut butter cups but that's about it. Jim says, deadpan, “I eat it daily.” Kate and Kevin laugh like Jim’s declaration is an understatement.



Vasilow’s Confectionery is located at 741 Columbia Street in Hudson, New York. Call 518 828 2717 for more information. Orders may be filled by phone, or on their soon to be operational Web site, www.vasilows.com.