ELK CANDY CLOSED? Fox 5 News just reported the closing of the Elk Candy Company, the Upper East Side shop known for its exceptional marzipan. The candymaker already survived at least one move--I hope it will survive this one!
Erin S. of Erin's Kitchen just blogged about the place on Thursday!
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47 comments:
I won't accept it! It's no longer my New York if Elk Candy closes. It's bad enough that Endicott Books and the Royal Canadian Pancake House are no more.
It's been one of the last (positive) remnants of German Yorkville. I tried emailing, but the email bounced back. I tried phoning (tonight) but there was no answer whatsoever.
Does any one know if they are no longer in business or they have relocated. I cannot accept it either. New York is not the same.
So far I haven't heard anything about relocation, I'm sorry to note.
Oh no! When I was there earlier this month I had no idea--there weren't any signs or anything...and they'd just been written up in the Times along with other spots in that neighborhood.
Elk Candy had the world's best marzipan and it was a family tradition to go there during Christmas and Easter to get the marzipan piggys and chicks. Where can one go for these specialties and traditions?
Please come back to NYC, Elk candy Co. We all need our marzipan fix!
It's really nice to hear that people still miss us.But im sorry to say the highs rents in manhattan has forced me to close for good after moving from 86th st to 2nd ave i thought i would be there forever.I was thinking of maybe opening up a small store where i live now in the hudson valley area and maybe do mail order but thats still up in the air. If i do i will post it here.Many Thanks Elk candy
I, too, am heartbroken by Elk's closing. I have been getting holiday goodies there every year for the last 50 years - since my mom started taking me as a young, wide-eyed child.
I spoke with one of the long-time employees at Schaller & Weber on the next block, and he said that the landlord had tripled Elk's already high rent to an untenable level. He said that Elk's owner was so disgusted by the unaffordable NYC rents, & by the cost of relocating again, that he just gave up and closed the business. Another triumph for greedy landlords.
Dear Elk Candy
Please, please, please choose to start up again in whatever form you can. If you do, please find a way to contact your former customers, and I and my family will remain your customers for the rest of our lives.
Thanks - your store and your products have played an indelible part of our family's history and memories.
John Keiser
I am so disappointed. I grew up on their candy and did not appreciate the artisan quality of their candy until I was an adult. Thier Easter "eggs" are exceptional. First Bauers, then Kramers, now this. NY has lost a true icon. This is really, really, sad!!!!!! Please come back to us.
My family also laments the closing. I was searching near and far to find a website to order from, but instead I found this. Please open again! Or get a website :)
I`ve been a marzipan lover all my life and have tasted marzipan all over the world. ELK CANDY had THE best marzipan in the world. ELK CANDY: I´m begging you, please set up at least mail order purchase so I can keep on eating it. please please please, I promise you, you will get enough customers.
Anton, Hopefully you'll see this blog and that you received my letter regarding a webstore. please contact me @ jflan1960@gmail.com
Thanks John Flanagan
I am of German heritage, but grew up on East 74th street, an Irish section. I think our Ellis Island name was close enough to Irish that we were allowed in.
We didn't actually do that much on East 86th street, the main street of German Yorkville. But the Elk Candy Company was one place we went to. I quite liked the little old German ladies behind the counter, and always ordered the marzipan Kartoffeln (potatoes). That was the straight stuff, marzipan and nothing else.
After leaving New York I would mail-order their Kartoffeln and friends venturing to New York would occaisonally bring me back a Care package.
I have taken every chance to sample marzipan since then, and theirs **was** the best marzipan in the world.
Anton, haben Sie aufstellen einen neuen Speicher schon? Bitte E-mail ich. Danke. John Flanagan
Hi,i would like to start by telling everyone how much i appreciate hearing nice things about Elk.As most of you know the high rents in manhattan had forced me to close.As i keep reading and hearing all the stories of my customer's it has made me to want to try a mail order bussiness with a small store front in the hudson valley i will keep you posted Anton Owner Once again thank you all.
Hi Anton! I´m missing Elk Too Much. Is it possible for you to make marzipan at home and just have it sent to the customers? my email is: daliatonco@gmail.com
Please let me know if this is possible or let me know your info in case you start a business again. I´m going to follow you everywhere!!!
Does anyone know of good quality marzipan in NYC?thanks-Dalia
Anton. Please let me know how we can order marzipan from you. Christmas isn't the same without kringles. We can order it from you. housingcolorado@aol.com
I am in shock and distraught! Elk is gone, I cannot believe it. We are former native New Yorkers who now live in Phoenix but get back to Manhattan regularly until last year. We are coming in Dec and are just now finding out Elk is gone. The greedy landlords should be ashamed for driving out these kinds of business that make NY what it is. We are devastated. Hopefully the owner of Elk will be able to start up where he lives and at least we can do mail order.
Nancy & Ed Phoenix
Anton, I dont know if you have gotten a chance to read all of your long time customers`emails. We are all very much waiting for you to make mail order, especially now in christmas. Have you thought about it? maybe you can give us all a good christmas present by making some marzipan for this summer and then decide how you want to continue with the business. Pls pls pls think about it. Hope to hear from you real soon!!
Dalia
Dear Anton: My whole family from Austria spent fifty years buying your heavenly sweets. We gloried in the kringels, chocolate covered orange peels and ginger, and the marzipan...we dream of it, we long for it, we yearn for it...Elk was the nerve center of our existance. The genius and wonderment of your store and talent cannot be equaled. Hudson River Valley? We implore you, for the sake of all who adore your fine sweets, come back to us!!! Please come back, we can't live without you. When you closed, we bought the last of the marzipan eggs and had one last family fling, and even photographed the last marzipan egg we ate...sniff. We are all thinking of ELK CANDY.
Alle Marzipangeliebte… frohen Weihnachten!
(All marzipan lovers ..Merry Christmas !)
A mail order business would be wonderful. I started shopping at Elk when I moved to NCY in 1974 to buy the stolen for Christmas, which was a family tradition that my grandmother had started. After moving to Westchester in 1982 I looked forward to my yearly trip to the Elk Candy Company. My family is really missing the marzipan stollen along with all the other goodies I would bring home. Please keep us posted re your plans. You are missed.
Now that it's Christmastime, I'm really missing Elk Candy. We went there for years for the marzipan, the chocolate ladybugs, the kringles, the Viennese truffles, and the katzenzungen (cat's tongues). All wonderful. I suppose a store can't survive high rents on Christmas business only, but hopefully a mail order business can. Please come back.
I too miss Elk more than you can imagine. My dad used to take me to the store on 86th street when I was a youngun. I made the trip myself when it moved to 84th. It's one of the great losses to the city. There is no marzipan like Elk. Anton, if you are still indeed making marzipan, I'd love to buy some, either mail order or picking up in the hudson valley, where I have a home. Your marzipan is good for the soul. Michael -- mfriedbe@wiley.com -- I buy in lbs...
I am horrified that Elk Candy is gone. P-L-E-A-S-E open a mail order business in the Hudson Valley. I have an 80+-year old cousin to whom I was going to send a box of marzipan to for Valentine's Day. What am I (or she) to do?
I have been joying in Elk Company marzipan since I was a child on East 89th st. When the 86th st. store closed, I was heartbroken, then stumbled across the 2nd avenue reincarnation by mistake and was ecstatic. Was involved when a German friend included it in a story for German TV. Another came back from Germany last year and I sent her there -- only there wasn't any there! Let us know what's going on please. How do we get in the loop? Has anyone found any equivalent in NY???
I am another Elk fan who has been devastated this past Christmas and this Easter by the demise of my beloved source of all the best chocolate and marzipan treats. I made a desperate effort at Christmastime to reproduce the Spitzkuchen I can't live without, but it wasn't the same. Anton, if you are out there reading, I would be an instant customer of any mail-order business you wanted to begin. If you do decide to do it, you can alert me at namenlose@gmail.com. If not, is there any chance of sharing the spitzkuchen recipe?
This year's pathetically quixotic venture is coconut cream eggs, but I would not even begin to try to imitate the nougat, truffle, raspberry and lemon ones that have been part of every Easter of my life until now. What to do???
Elk Candy Company AND Elk Candy LOVERS, let's band together our love for the product and our MONEY (an important factor, no matter what we all want to admit) and set up a mail order business. Let's get the conversation going! Anton: What do you need to get a mail order company going? I think we could put investors together!!! We can't let them win, Anton. For all of us, our relatives and our passion for your marzipan and other products, let's get this (marzipan) log rolling!! :-) Ilene Gunter ikgunter@cox.net
Ilene Gunter - I'm interested in your prososal - John Flanagan - jflan1960@gmail.com
I know many of you miss Elks and their great products. We are a marzipan maufacturer in Hawthorne NJ. Our website is marzipancandies.com. I would be interested in making Elks brand with their permission and licensing and of course their recipe. If their is any interest, please let me know at marzipanco@aol.com. Sincerely, Royce Keller
Elk Candy had the best Marzipan I ever tasted! I became a customer as a teenager. When I went to Hunter College, I introduced many of my friends to Elk and they also became enthusiastic customers! I remember making my monthly (and sometimes weekly) trips for my marzipan fixes! I would be willing to travel to Hudson Valley to purchase Elk candy and I know a lot of people who would do the same. Mail order or storefront, I will continue to be a loyal customer.
I would like to tell everyone how much I appreciate hearing nice things about Elk Candy.
I am currently looking for a spot in the Hudson Valley. You can go to ElkCandy.com and send us an email to request updates and we will send them out as they happen.
Anton, Owner
Once again thank you all.
I am comforted that the web site is accepting emails. My Elk Candy story involves a friend of mine. She remembered the store from her time in NY. I have never even been! But it was always a special thing I could send to her - good for holidays, birthdays, and, as is the case now, for mending fences. Nothing says, "I'm sorry" like cute-shaped marzipan! I have no clue where to go now. Not a one. I hope they come back in any form!
I just tried to access the website and recieved a "Coming Soon" message. I too am interested in finding a way to get Elk's wonderful marzipan. My mother-in-law worked at Elk for almost 30 years. When she retired she and my father-in-law moved to Las Vegas, every time they came to NY we would always make a trip to Elk. Many times the visits would coincide with the Steuben Parade. She still misses it. In almost 20 years, she still hasn't found Marzipan as good as Elk's.
Yet another Elk fan here. I not only loved their marzipan but the incomperable lekvar filled spitzkuchen and the domino steine. I made some spitzkuchen from scratch last year. They were good, but I'd love to be able to buy the Elk ones somewhere.
The marzipan was definitely fantastic but don't forget the chocolate covered cherries. My son (28) has been eating them since he was a baby and he misses them dearly. I had been going there since I was a child and my aunt worked there. I also worked there briefly in 1980. My whole family misses all the great candies. I definitely would travel to the Hudson Valley to get their great goodies
Anton - I hope you do still plan on opening somehwhere - I am so sad that today I was planning on going to get some of your wonderful Dominosteine - only to find out your store is gone. Many of us spend time in the Hudson Valley - we will even buy straight from your home! IM up there every holiday - so please let us know if you do open up a storefront there - and good luck on the website!
I was in tears today on the street-- I wandered up and down all the avenues from 86th to 80th wondering why I could not find Elk. I will do anything to make Elk come back and if it has to be in the Hudson Valley so be it- I wish at the time there had been a "Save Elk" campaign. Please, let me know what's up. Email me at
grenquisa@yahoo.com if there are any updates to the business- I would mail-order every year for generations to come. It is my tradition to have Elk Marzipan pigs and fruit every Christmas without fail for 35 years. Please! My heart broke today...please tell me there is hope...
What passion! I was not a marzipan buyer but rather the large, dark chocolate bars that they had in a display case by the door. $5. When the sad news went out , I think I bought about 20 of the bars over the final weeks. We savored them for weeks.
How ironic would it be if this recession (depression?) actually helps in restoring the retail landscape of New York to what it once was. How many upscale chain stores and ultra-high end boutiques selling expensive junk can the city support anyway? Maybe a deluge of broken leases and plummeting rents will finally convince NYC landlords that NOT mindlessly killing off unique icons like ELK's is in everyones longterm interest. When all of the smaller and much beloved businesses (of which ELK's is only one of many) are finally gone, what will be left to point to and say "thats why I love, and come to, New York"?
I believe another website
some where on the web called,
the sweet life ( I think)shows that Anton is still looking for a location to open once more, and this is a 2009 web. Hmmmmm
I thought i actually found real marzipan...and my daughter lives in NYC! Now I read that Elk is gone! After reading all the reviews/comments, all I can think is "What is America without unique products with special artisan flair? And taste in this case!" Sad!
Certainly hope that Elk can do the online store and mail order! ...just a thought...are we destined to become a country with cookie-cutter big business/mega corporation offerings on every street in every state?
Anton - please, please consider mailing your wonderful sweets. As a native New Yorker, I was weened on those little pigs along with some of the other sweets! My mother would buy a pig for me every year, even after I married, then the grandkids got it. At Easter, I always got the huge dark choc. egg with the little foil eggs inside. Kramers is gone, Bauers too, please don't be another. My email is shaeve2@windstream.net
Elk Candy is open only @
www.elkcandy.com
Thank you to everyone for your support
we're still hoping for a resurrection of elk marzipan--the one and only! keep us posted!
Sorry Elk, but the best chocolate marzipan my friends and I have ever tasted is sold online at: www.themarzipanhouse.com.
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