The Candy Man, Orient's longtime chocolatier, closes after nearly 40 years

The Candy Man, a confectioner of Easter bunnies and other chocolate treats, has closed after nearly 40 years of business on Long Island, the business announced.

The Candy Man, an East End staple, at 22350 Main Rd. in Orient, “is officially closed as of today,” Deborah Michta, one of the owners of the multi-generational family-run business said in a Facebook post on Easter.

Michta, who ran the business with her husband, Jim Michta, said the sweets shop, which made chocolate Easter rabbits, candy canes and chocolate-covered strawberries, made the difficult decision to close after a medical issue in the family.

Michta, who did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday, did not offer specifics in her online post.

“We are heartbroken to announce that we must close,” Michta wrote. “A tragic medical diagnosis within the family has forced us to make this decision and made it impossible to continue making our handmade chocolates with the standards, you have grown to love.”

Michta thanked customers for their support over the years.

“On behalf of the Heins/Michta family, we would like to say goodbye and sweet dreams,” she wrote.

Michta's grandfather William Heins, originally from Germany, launched the business while in retirement in the 1960s, according to reports from the Suffolk Times. At the time, Heins began by making chocolate rabbits out of his garage as a hobby, but the rabbits became a hit with locals.

What started as a hobby flourished and became a small business, and the confectioner, housed out of a former gas station until its recent closing, has been in operation since 1998, Jim Michta told the Times in 2018.

Marnie Ives, owner and operator of Kron Chocolatier, a chocolate shop in Great Neck that’s been in business since the 1980s, said she was sad to hear the news of The Candy Man’s closing given the unique nature and challenge of running a chocolate business.

“It’s a whole lifestyle to run a small chocolate business,” said Ives, who’s been with her shop for 27 years and became its owner in 1998. “It’s a hard business because of the chocolate prices and the seasonality.”

The price of chocolate, she said, has seen rapid increases in recent years which have made operations more challenging.

U.S. retail prices for chocolate rose 14% from start of the year to the first week of February compared with the same time period last year, according to data from a market researcher Datasembly.