Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.92 | Speach Family Candy Shoppe

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

On this episode of Good News York, host Mike Brindisi sits down with Michael Speach of the iconic Speach Family Candy Shoppe in Syracuse, NY. Michael shares the inspiring story of his great-grandfather’s journey from Italy in the late 1800s to founding the family business that’s now in its fourth generation.From hand-crafted chocolates and nostalgic candies to creative programs like Quarters for Change and custom “Pick & Pour” bags, Michael reveals how the shop blends tradition, community, and creativity. You’ll hear about their Willy Wonka roots, a jukebox that gives back, and of course, their signature chocolate-covered potato chips.This episode is a sweet mix of history, entrepreneurship, and heart—proof that the American dream is alive and well in Central New York.

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All right. Welcome to Good News York, sponsored by Ads on the Go. Get Ads on the Go.com. Mike Brindisi, flying solo. Matt is not here and it's his loss because I have an amazing guest with me today. not Matt, just me. I have them all to myself from the speech family candy business. I should say this speech family candy shop. Speech family candy shop.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Michael's speech. Thank you for coming. Thank you for having me. I am very excited to have you. I mean, look, right off the bat, I want to say I, my kryptonite is sugar and sweets and chocolate. and I'm not afraid to admit that. I love it. We have a candy bowl in our house.

But here's the thing. You go to the stores, the big box stores, you kind of see all the same brands. You know what you're going to get. When I first looked on your website, the selection that you guys have and kind of just the services that you guys do outside of, you know, making and putting candy out to purchase.

You guys do so much. And it's a family business. I want to talk about that first because family businesses are the bread and butter of this country, right? And you guys have a great story. And I'd love for you to talk about that. I know your, is it your great grandfather? My great grandfather came from Italy. It's an amazing story.

It really is the American dream. I'd like to hear about that. Sure. So, yeah, I'm the fourth generation. Wow. So my great-grandfather originally came over in the late 1800s with a bunch of his family. And after kind of going back and forth whether or not to actually stay in the country, he finally settled right in Syracuse. And he started actually doing various jobs, did some construction, everything else.

And then finally fell into a job working with Coughlin brothers, which is actually a business that was making cough drops at the time, medicated cough drops. And as part of that process, he actually learned how to make hard candy. and that was part of that first step into him deciding that he wanted to kind of pursue that. So after, I think he ended up borrowing like $1,000, which back in 1920 was a lot of money. A lot of money. Yeah. And basically invested and started making candy. It originally started in the front of his house right on Lodi Street, not too far from where we currently are located, only a few blocks.

And then it kind of just got passed around from family member to family member until my parents landed it in the 80s and then actually put up its first brick and mortar location where customers could actually come into. Originally, my grandfather and all of his children were doing business to business. So it's probably one of the reasons why our name is not as popular to, say, like a seize candy that has, you know, been serving consumer directly for many, many years. You know, I threw the word American dream out. And I think sometimes we use that a little loosely, but that is genuinely the American dream.

You migrate over from another country to the land of opportunity and you work hard and you hope that you get that break to where you can, you know, start your own business or just create a life that's sustainable. And I just, I truly think that's such a great story. And thank you for sharing that. Is the house where he started, do you guys still own that house? No, that was told many, many years ago. during all of the craziness with the business, at one point, my grandfather employed quite a few people. And then we were even exporting back to France. We actually have documentation where he was actually sending candy, which is unheard of.

You're thinking Belgium chocolate, French chocolate. Sure. You know, the UK, they have really good product. He was actually sending it back over there. So that was kind of cool. So at one point, they actually had one of the largest houses with the first in-ground pool in Syracuse on McBride Street. Really? They actually, once the family got to a size, because my grandfather had 10 children.

Wow. So, you know, and my grandfather, Ernie was actually the youngest of the 10. So I have, you know, people that are my generation that are like twice my age. Amazing. So the family was huge. But yeah, it, I wish we still had that house. It's actually, I drive past it all the time. It's not too far from Doloro's bakery right on the north side.

Yeah. I ask because, I mean, it's, it's more than just a house, right? I mean, that is the symbol of the hope that he had and then the success that came once he came here and started grinding. I just love that. I do know that you guys are just involved in not only just obviously making selling candy. You're involved in a ton of events. I definitely want to talk about that. But I notice, you know, it is a family business.

So is this something that as you're. as you were growing up, you were like, oh, well, I got to do this. I mean, this is the family business. Or did you take a genuine interest on your own with this? To be totally, I was the opposite. Really? I, um, when I got in my teenage years where my friends were like hanging out and going to parties and movies and I was stuck either helping take care of my sisters who were younger than I was or helping out like at the holiday time at the candy store. When I finally got a license, I was like, I'm out. I'm out. See you. I want nothing to do with it. It was kind of one of those things where, yeah, I was going to be the end of the candy line, I think. Oh, boy.

For a while there until I went and pursued a totally different area. I actually went into entertainment. I did television radio and then I went into theatrical design. Excellent. Right from, so I went to OCCC, had a full ride to Ithaca College and was pursuing everything. You're a bomber? I am a bomber. I'm a bomber. Oh, very cool. Park school. Did you? Theat, I was doing. You were in theater school. I was over Dilling. Yeah, yeah. There's some crossover there. I took some acting classes and stuff like that. Yeah. And we actually,

they always kind of work together in that side. And I've, I did some design work over at Park for lighting and stuff. Dude, I think you're my new best friend. You're an Ithaca college alum and you have a bag full of candy with you. So, you know,

it's 2025. There's a lot of opportunities out there to start businesses. Entrepreneurship is probably at an all time high. But, you know, back in those days, especially your great grandfather's days and even a few generation ago, that was,

it wasn't as, I guess, common to be able to launch a business like that. And candy is such a niche, niche product. Were there some barriers there with sustaining success and sales with just being candy? Did you have to pivot and kind of, because you do more than just the candy itself? Now, yes, we do a lot more. But back then, I think a big part of it was because we were business to business back then, which was mostly wholesale. I mean, we were predominantly wholesale.

We were selling to like every corner candy store. We were selling to places down in Cortland. We were, you know, again, shipping it all over the, you know, abroad. So, I mean, the idea, I think is a little bit different where I think, like, especially when we hit the Great Depression, right? Like, you know, families were, you know, losing out. Sure. There were no jobs, all that kind of stuff.

Because it was a food processing business. My uncle was able to get rations so he could continue to make product. so that he could continue to sell product. So stuff like that was really interesting and being able to help out families that way. That's amazing. So there was a little of that. And I think a big part of it is because the relationships

were business to business versus business to consumer. Sure. There was more demand. Absolutely. I think that's what kept him going. Wow. And have you guys always, you make all the candy and manufacture, package the whole deal?

Well, we make a lot of our own chocolates. So basically predominantly chocolates, fudge, and then brittle, hard candy brittle. Of course, we carry a wide selection of jelly belly candies, M&Ms, you know, all the big brands. Of course. Harder to find candy. We have a whole nostalgia section with like sky bars and Neko wafers and all that stuff as well. But, yeah, we manufacture everything and everything is done by hand. There's the only things that are like electronic in the entire building are our chocolate

melters. Even today. Even to this. So if I was to walk in in the back, I'm assuming you do all this in the brick and mortar store. Yeah. If I was to walk, I'm not going to see big machines. I'm not going to, this is all.

Big candy melters that, you know, we can melt like 200 pounds of chocolate at a time and big marble tables and a lot of counter space. That's fascinating. Yeah. You know, we should, I'm just going to say this on the year. We should, if you want it, we should come and shoot. I'd love to watch you go through that process.

and I think a lot of people would. Yeah, I mean, it gets to a point where it can be a little tedious. Like, I've been trying for years to try to figure out how to do TikTok videos and stuff, but I'm like, I don't ever stand in one spot for a long time. I need, like, a panning camera, like, because I'm literally always a 360 camera. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we have a marble table about the same size as this table that I work at predominantly,

um, that we make fudge at. And I'm like on all four sides running around it for hours at a time. Do you think at this point, I mean, you could probably leave, make candy with your eyes closed? Do you think the process is so ingrained in your brain? At this point, yes. Like, I mean, I, we actually have what we call our recipe Bible, which is all of my great-grandfather's original recipes and then recipes we've modified over the years. And I have it just for a resource just in case I'm not there. And sister or one of our associates have to produce something. But I don't even really look at it anymore.

I bet. I know, oh, this is eight cups. Right, right. Speaking of that, when I was on your site, there was much more than just candy. There was the advent calendar you talked about for the holidays, the events that you guys do. Something that caught my eye was your speechisms. I didn't know if you wanted to talk about that and what that exactly meant. I appreciated it very much. So we actually, again, it's a family business and we're in candy. It's not like we're, you know, manufacturing like car parts.

Sure. So there's a really, there's a lot of lightness and a lot of humor, a lot of what we do. Even when we ship out boxes, like my last one is, um, uh, FMOFA, flip me over and find out when you're shipping chocolate. So like we like we try to have fun with it. And so one of the things we came up with a few years ago, um, it was during COVID actually when I was like sitting there and I have a, I do a lot of graphic stuff. But we were like, let's just start making up like all of the funny things that we think are hysterical. than other people might. So like there's a lot of speeches on there. Like can vegetarians eat animal crackers? Like it's a great question really you know yeah that's that's like and that just

came out one day when we were sitting there talking I think we were actually dipping gram animal crackers and chocolate. That was the conversation. I was like, I wonder if vegetarians can eat these like yeah right that's a it's a very valid question. No, I see and that just kind of furthers my point of how not only is it original because you are a family business but you guys are just original in everything you do you know it's the speechisms. Like, you know, if you were ever questioning, should we put speechisms on the website?

I hope I kind of solidified that you should have because it caught my eye immediately. Yeah, we have a lot of fun with that. That's one of our biggest. And I actually have a lot more. I just haven't loaded them up. Sure. You guys also do something called,

I can't read my own handwriting, but I think it's called, was it quarters for change? Quarters for change. This is really great. Can you talk about that a little bit too? So when we actually had our 100th anniversary, which was back in 2020,

congratulations. Thank you. Five years later, but congratulations. Five this year. But back then, we were trying to figure out what we can do to celebrate 100 years in business. And as a small family business, the big part is the community. I mean, if the community wasn't supportive. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman and Uneworld Boutique River Cruises L'ouique Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been setting there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy.

Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising and Unirold's 50th anniversary summer specials. Hey, it's Cubby. Have you ever had an energy drink that makes you feel like your head is going to explode? Well, liquid death now makes a better-for-you energy drink. Liquid death sparkling energy feels like a coffee, not an electric chair. It has zero sugar and just five calories.

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unextreme, 100 milligrams of caffeine, same as a cup of coffee. You can buy liquid death sparkling energy at a fine retailer near you like 7-11 or to learn more at liquid death.com. We wouldn't be in existence. So back in 2020, we came up with our program 10 decades of giving. And so we partnered with 10 different nonprofits in Syracuse. And then each one of the months for the first 10 months of the year, we were donating a portion of all of our sales to each one those nonprofits and support as a thank you to the community. And unfortunately, 2020 happened and we hit COVID. And all of that did not work out as well as we wanted. We were hoping to, we wanted to actually hit $100,000 in donations. We only hit like 38, I think, that year. Just because of

the way that you're planned out. But in a way to kind of continue the whole idea of giving back, we came up with this program. I have a very avid vinyl record collector. Nice. And so when I had the opportunity. I actually had a custom jukebox made. Oh. It's the last, uh, manufactured jukebox in America right now, Rocola is no. What? Do we are best friends, whether you wanted or not, because I, I've told my wife that I, if we come across a vintage jukebox in good condition, like I'm going to splurge. I'm going to get it. So I keep going. I'm sorry. I'm just very excited. No, no, no. Um, so I sat down with the owner. His name is Alexander. Really great guy. We talked about what I wanted. We wanted it to tie in with the candy store.

So it has like the rainbow lights and the bubbles and the whole bit and all custom, you know. And so we ordered that and I was like, well, now I'm going to have this jukebox. Where am I going to put it? And I said, well, let's bring into the candy store. And then we were thinking, what could we do to kind of give that whole vintage look and nostalgia look for that? And we were like, well, let's just continue the whole giving back. So back in 2023, we started the program, Quarters for Change.

And we basically align with different nonprofits. every month and all the quarters that it collects because it's like a bank go directly to the nonprofits. Dude, that is so, not only is that so giving, so kind and for all the obvious reasons, but that's so creative, man. You can tell that you worked in the creative industry, theater. You know, you're like me where I come from a performance background and somehow I always apply some sort of performance or music, creativity within whatever I'm doing. That's amazing. Do you have, is it 45s? I'm a lot. assuming. Yeah. And do you collect only 45s or do you collect them all? No. In the jukebox,

do you have candy themed songs like the Archies? I'm trying to think of sugar sugar. Polypop. Yeah. Mr. Samman. There's, of course, Candyman is in there. Yeah. Sammy Davis Jr.'s version of that. Yeah. And we'll switch them out. So every month, like I have, my collection is quite extensive. So every now and then I'll switch out records or put new ones in. we actually have a thing on the website where you can request records. So if we have it, we'll put it in for the next month, which is kind of cool. And even if you're online and making a purchase, you can also donate to the jukebox and then we put the quarter in in the store.

I mean this respectfully. You know, if someone was here, you're going to have someone on to talk about their family candy shop. They're probably thinking, okay, this will be just a cute little interview with five. And this was the whole reason we wanted to have you on that it's not just a candy shop for all the reasons you're just listing. And I just, I'm absolutely in love with it. You guys do everything from candy trays, molded chocolates, fruitworks, chocolate truffles, brittles, pretzels, and something also called pack and pour.

What is that about? So did I say that right? Is it pick and pour? Pick and poor. Sorry. Again, I have terrible handwriting. So one of our things we want to do for the 105th anniversary was we wanted to give everyone an opportunity to do something truly unique. So we came up with an idea that we were going to make it so that people could go on our website and order a custom candy bar.

are bristles, which are basically like chocolate barks. Okay. We've made 80 different varieties of them and they're crazy if you go on to the website. But a lot of people come in and are like, have you ever done this or have you ever done this? And then at a certain point, it's like, well, I can't continue to make hundreds of these. You know, it's just going to be too hard. So why don't we just give the customer the opportunity to do something truly unique so

you can send it as a gift. You can give it as, you know, I mean, truly, what's the best unique gift you can ever give is something custom made for someone. Absolutely. So you can either do a one pound chocolate bar. And you can add up to four different ingredients inside the chocolate bar. You can name it. And then it even comes with like a custom little tag on there that says made for.

So it's packaged too? It's packaged. And then so you need to do that. Or you can also do our bags of brickel. So you either get a one pound candy bar or five bags of brickel. And actually. Oh boy. I was hoping the bag would come out, Danny.

I brought two of the pick and pour bristles. One was the Raspberry Coffee Tribute. Okay. That was one of the names. So a customer gave for that idea. And then the other one was made for mix. Amazing. And so now they go home with this candy.

You don't carry it after. It's just kind of a one-time deal. Basically, if they order it, we make just enough for the order. So it's a custom one-off. If it's something they like, we obviously just keep the recipe on hand. And they can always reorder. Can they, do you stamp? the candy as well with anything?

I mean, don't stamp the candy. The candy bar is like its own shape. Gotcha. But like these are, I mean, obviously you can see that they're really different. And the labels are all customized. Amazing, man. That is, that's so great. We're going to go there.

We're going to come and we're going to shoot. Now, a couple more questions because I know I don't want to take up too much of your time. Another feature that seems, I guess, you know, in 2025, it's not unheard of. But I think in your industry, it's really. unique. You guys deliver. You deliver. And even on your website, you list where you, like, it's very specific. Have you always been doing that? So, and is there like a minimum? So there's no minimum. You're paying for the fee. There's a flat fee for, I mean, for each. Yeah, you can order five things. You can order 500 things. It really doesn't matter. We, uh, we actually partnered a few years back with,

uh, 1,800 flowers. They approached. Yeah. Being a fulfillment for Sherry's, berries and fruit bouquets. So if you ever order sherry's berries or fruit bouquets and you're within certain zip codes, more than likely they're coming directly from us. Wow. We partnered with them. I want to say it's been 11 years now. So when that happens, we were like, okay, well, I guess we need a delivery driver and we need to have a delivery truck. And we started doing deliveries. And obviously, we do a lot more than just stuff for them.

Right. Yeah. So we do a local delivery within 20 miles of Syracuse. That's absolutely phenomenal. So this is a family business. And right now, it's, you're running the show. Do we have anybody in line to carry this on after? Are we setting up another generation for the family business?

Well, there is a fifth generation. They're all still in elementary school. They're a little young yet. But again, when I was in elementary school, I was stuffing bags and making baskets. So it's just a matter of time. Sure. We do have the possibility of that. But I'm also not going to put it on anyone.

It's one of those things where I think that I felt a lot of pressure from not my direct family, not my immediate family, but a lot of my distant cousins, great aunts and uncles, they were like, oh, you know, you're taking it on next. I'm like, who signed that? Says who? I didn't commit to that. And it wasn't until I went into what I thought I wanted to do that I missed the family business part of it. Oh, that's awesome.

Couple more things real quick. I did notice you have a Willie Wonka, which is one of my top 10 favorite movies of all time. I just actually introduced my kids to it. Willie, was that any sort of influence on you? Was it a big part of the family tradition that you guys always watched that movie

because it's centered around candy? Is it a significant, does it play a significant role in the speech family in general? To be totally honest, funny way, my sister a few years ago for Christ, who actually works with me. She's my manager at the store.

She actually had a custom poster made with the three Willie Wonka. So you have Gene Wilder, Johnny Depp, and Timothy Shalameh on a thing. And then I'm the fourth one, and it's all says Candyman, Andre. I'm like, oh. Yes. Yeah. And one of our license plates say Candy Man. Yes.

And then my license plates on my truck say Syracuse Wonka. So, yeah, it does play a pretty big. You, man, you get it. You just get it. You get it across the board. jukeboxes custom license plates you're absolutely um amazing two or three quick rapid fire questions before we go okay um the favorite vinyl in your collection do you have one i do um really right off the top of your head okay all the time kiley minot came out with an album called disco a few years back

and you jam out to every single song so when i'm when i'm there at two o'clock in the morning i put that vinyl on i feel that do you i've heard people say that music sounds better on a jukebox. Do you believe that? I do. I do too. I love the pops, the clicks. That actually gives it, it's more character-driven. It's got like a robust sound that you just can't find anywhere.

And with that jukebox, we were able to have it custom made so it feeds into their entire store. So like when you play the jukebox, all the rest of the music cuts out and it's just the jukebox. So that was one of the custom features. So good. And it's a win-win because it's your collection. So it's not like a song's going to come on and you're going to go, oh. You know, it's every, it's everything.

from your collection. My sister doesn't like when the Muppets Monomaena play. Well, it's great. She'll roll her eyes. She's like, or Fragal Rock. I have the original Fragal Rock. That's great.

It's so awesome. So if we're doing favorite vinyl, this is probably harder. Favorite chocolate or candy that you guys make. That's a hard one. And I have to say it's depending on what I'm making. Okay. Like if my hands are in caramel,

you're going caramel. I'm going caramel. If I'm doing something with a dark chocolate and sea salt, I'm tasting. some of that one or else. And if I'm coming to your store and I've never been there and I say, just give me like one of your signature. What's one I got?

I have to try. More than likely our chocolate or potato chips. Those are. You what? Tell me you brought some. I'm leaving here with diabetes and I'm fine with it. Brought some. So our chocolate potato chips are probably our number one staple from the 80s when my parents

took over the business. Have you guys ever heard of chocolate covered? You have? I've never heard of chocolate covered potato chips. That is outstanding. And last question, your busiest season, because I would think Christmas or Valentine's Day, sometimes it's not as obvious, though. So it's funny, Christmas is our longest season, our busiest season.

Sure. Because that starts basically in November. Okay. Our busiest day of the year is Valentine's Day. Okay. Makes sense. Single day of the year, yeah. And where can we go to brick and mortar location, website, all the plugs, give it to us?

Okay. Um, our brick and mortar store is at 2400 Lodi street. It's on the corner of court and Lodai on the north side. And then, um, the website is speechfamilycandy.com or speechcandy.com or there's like 20 different URLs. It'll all lead you back to the same place. That's amazing. Michael's speech from the speech family candy shop. I've had so much fun with you. Um, you're a very unique person and you guys are a very unique business and we really appreciate you. And I'm serious. I think we should come and shoot if you, if you, if you, if you, want. We'll talk off the year. I think it'd be really fun to come and how can I not? I mean,

I wanted to before I knew about the jukebox. So maybe we can reshoot you doing the Candyman song. Remember the candy man can we could reshoot the music video. No, Danny says no. I say yes. All right, maybe not. Anyway, Michael's speech from the speech family candy shop, check them out. And thank you for tuning in to Good News York. We'll be back Monday. Good News York, sponsored by Ad on the go. Get ads on the go.com. You can follow me on all social media at Mike BTV. Thanks for tuning in and eat some candy. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman and Uniworld Boutique River Cruises L'ouique Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been

selling there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising and Unirold's 50th anniversary summer specials. You're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own is free and easy. upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music, and hundreds more.

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