This time of year Crown Candy Kitchen is pumping out chocolate bunnies faster than a rabbit.
"It's kind of organized chaos," Andy said.
It was Andy Karandzieff's grandfather who started this St. Louis institution back in 1913.
But everyone calls him Andy Candy.
"The teachers would cal me that in high school... what got me out of high school was chocolate," he said.
Over the next month. Andy Candy expects to sell 10,000 Easter bunnies.
"I gotta say it, we're really hoppin' then," he said.
It's candy made the old fashioned way
"These are all poured by hand. These aren't machine made stuff. These hands and the chocolate melter over there," Andy said.
Every now and then, one of his creations cracks while coming out of the mold.
"Some of them break. You get a little frustrated," he said.
What do you do with a bunch of broken chocolate? At Crown Candy, you get misfit chocolates.
Andy said, "You can start getting creative and you get these oddball, misfit things that come out of my demented imagination sometimes."
Like a mad scientist of chocolate, Andy puts together the broken pieces. You'll find a bunny head on top of a tennis player's body. And a doll head on top of a bunny's body.
"These could be like a Frankenstein creation to an extent," he said.
And people are buying them. After Andy creates one, he'll post it on social media.
He said, "People are like, 'I need one of those,' And I say, 'You better come down and get 'em because I don't go out of my way to do these."
Misfit chocolates aren't something you'd see at Crown Candy back in 1913.
"That wouldn't have flown back in the day," he said.
But they certainly break the mold.
1401 St Louis Avenue
facebook.com/crowncandykitchen
(314) 621-9650
crowncandykitchen.net
MON-THUR 10:30AM -8:00PM
FRI-SAT 10:30AM – 8:00PM
