Powell’s Sweet Shoppe
We stand up and applaud the folks who took Michael Powell’s one-of-a-kind sweet shop and franchised it to 27 locations up and down the West Coast. You can’t help but feel “like a kid in a candy store” when you walk in the door because, well, you are! With Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory blaring on a big screen, Powell’s Sweet Shoppe is packed to the brim with all the candy favorites you dream about. There are bulk candy bins, a "gum library," a memory-lane table featuring Big Hunks, Zotz, and Charleston Chews, a British phone booth stocked with U.K. favorites, and a glass case featuring over 27 types of chocolate truffles and locally made treats — including chocolate-covered bacon! In true Bay Area fashion, it even lists its vegan options on the website.

What to get: DIY, mix-and-match candy by the pound, Nerds, Pixie Sticks, Hi-Chews, British Kit-Kat, Turtles (pecan, almond, or cashew in milk or dark chocolate) chocolate-covered toffee, chocolate-covered honeycombs, and s’mores.

Powell’s Sweet Shoppe, 3206 College Avenue (at Alcatraz Avenue), Berkeley; 510-658-9866; 35 North Santa Cruz Avenue (between Bean Avenue and W. Main Street), Los Gatos; 408-395-5200; 1166 Howard Avenue (between Lorton and Highland avenues), Burlingame; 650-344-4478.