No secret where the candy is on Urbana, Ohio’s Monument Square.

Downtown Urbana, Ohio, has been undergoing an impressive renaissance. New restaurants and retail businesses. A brewery. Loft apartments.

And building owners who are taking risks, creating new development and stripping away 1970s facades to reveal Urbana’s past glory – before chain stores lured commerce and people from the city center.

When the pandemic put life on pause, change brewed beneath the surface. Then emerged, accelerating before our eyes ever since.

Back in 2014 there was renewed hope when the Urbana United Methodist Church bought the shuttered Urbana Twin Cinemas and started returning the theater to economic, cultural, social and spiritual vibrancy as the Gloria Theatre. And in 2021, when the old Douglas Hotel on Monument Square was saved from years of neglect to become Legacy Place, the home of senior apartment living, along with the former Urbana North and South elementary schools.

Burgeoning signs of progress in Champaign County nudged me to restart this blog, which I originally launched in 2010.

A Constant Presence

In this post, however, I feature a business that has endured for decades amidst an everchanging downtown, Carmazzi’s Candy and General Store, at 100 S. Main St., Urbana. The shop has satisfied our community’s sweet tooth for generations on the southwest corner of Monument Square in a Federalist-style building. Constructed in 1811, the building served a brief stint as military headquarters during the War of 1812.

The iconic gold lettering on the shop’s window proclaims: “Carmazzi’s Serving You Since 1893.” Above that, in tantalizingly large letters, “CANDY” calls kids and kids at heart to a wide assortment of sweets, like my favorites, Baby Ruth and Bit-O-Honey. And other products, like another personal favorite, locally roasted coffee from Hemisphere Coffee Roasters.

John Carmazzi

Sam Bianchi opened the business in 1893 as Bianchi’s Fruit Store. In 1931, Mr. Bianchi’s niece, Victoria, and her husband, Frank Carmazzi, bought the shop from him and gave it their name. One thing stays true to the original store. To this day, Carmazzi’s still sells fruit baskets.

The Carmazzis’ children, John, Bob and Rosemary, worked alongside them. John, who started waiting on customers before he could see over the counter, bought the store from his mother in 1952.

In 2014, John sold Carmazzi’s to Jeff Donay, as featured in this past Champaign Uncorked post. And after Donay, Pat and Patsy Thackery, owners of Café Paradiso, became owners of Urbana’s cherished candy store.

Not Owners, But Caretakers

The current owners, Jay and Kate Johnson, in August celebrated their first anniversary at Carmazzi’s. But, as Jay says, “Nobody really owns Carmazzi’s. We’re just the caretakers. It belongs to the city of Urbana.”

Kate and Jay Johnson: how sweet it is to own — or caretake — Urbana, Ohio’s candy store, Carmazzi’s.

Each iteration of ownership has brought minor tweaks to Carmazzi’s, while retaining the original charm and nostalgia, keeping it real for people who grew up here and want to cherish the memories.

Despite being newcomers to town themselves, Jay and Kate quickly came to appreciate the timeless allure of Carmazzi’s. (They moved here in December 2020. More about that, in a moment.)

“The best part is all the people who come in and want to share their stories,” Kate says. Many of the posts on the store’s Facebook page feature customers who drop by to buy candy – many also to reminisce while back in town to visit friends and family.

“We took over right before fair week last year, and I was amazed by all the people who came from everywhere, and I’m not talking just Ohio. I’m talking, Arizona, Chicago … they would all come back to Champaign County just to go to the fair. I thought that was amazing.”

Jay and Kate moved to Urbana from Dublin. They’d lived there since 2016 when Jay became a lecturer and director of the George V. Voinovich Academy for Excellence in Public Service at Ohio University’s Dublin campus – a job he still holds and easily commutes to.

Prior to that he served 30 years in the U.S. Marines, retiring as a colonel. In that span, they moved 22 times around the world and country.

“You can see how that would segue right into candy,” Kate jokes.

Finding Their New Home

About their move to Urbana, she explains, “when Covid hit (and she and Jay had lived in one place – Dublin – for four years) I took it upon myself to decide where we were going to move next. We gave ourselves a parameter: an hour out of Dublin.

“We like Dublin. It’s very nice, but we like small towns.”

Jay and Kate Johnson with employee JD Knopp, behind the counter of Carmazzi’s.

Jay grew up in Washington County, Ohio, near Marietta. And Kate in Zanesville, in Muskingum County.

They met as students at Ohio University, living in a co-ed dorm. Kate was Jay’s resident assistant.

In their search for a new home, Kate first explored Urbana on her own. Jay stayed home to watch football.

“I went to the Depot and had a cup of coffee. Then I looked around. I liked this place, and here we are.”

Jay joined her on a return trip. That led to finding a real estate agent. “We didn’t know anyone in Urbana,” Kate recalls. “We had a fantastic realtor, Patrick Hamilton. He’s as welcoming as they come, his entire staff, so it felt like family when we moved here (in December 2020). It’s been a great decision.”

After buying their Urbana home, they shared with Hamilton the one shortcoming they had discovered in Urbana. “Urbana didn’t have an ice cream shop,” Kate says. (More on that later.)

“Then a few weeks later we got wind of something about Carmazzi’s, not that it was for sale, but would we be interested, instead of ice cream?”

Hamilton arranged for them to talk with Pat and Patsy Thackery.

“The main thing we all agreed on is it would have to remain Carmazzi’s,” Kate remembers. “That’s the whole reason we would want Carmazzi’s, because it’s Carmazzi’s!”

Next, the Thackerys and Johnsons went out to the Dragonfly Vineyard. “It was a chilly spring day,” Jay says. “We passed a couple of napkins back and forth on the table and closed the deal.”

Jay and Kate’s transition to retail business owners was relatively easy. Says Kate, “The store was ready to go. It was turnkey, as they say. They (the Thackerys) had done such a fabulous job, that one day I showed up and took over.”

And now about Urbana’s lack of an ice cream shop….

Welcome to the Cool Spot!

Jay and Kate Johnson, in the center, cut the ribbon in front of their new ice cream shop, 124 S. Main St., Urbana, on October 13.

Problem solved, thanks to Jay and Kate, who just opened the Cool Spot, at 124 S. Main St., down the block from Carmazzi’s. The ribbon cutting ceremony was held at noon Friday, October 13, so the shop was open in time for the last of downtown Urbana’s Second Saturdays of 2023, on October 14.

The Cool Spot offers 28 flavors of Hershey’s hand-dipped ice cream. The menu includes cones, cups, milkshakes, floats and pie à la mode. (Carmazzi’s had been offering a limited selection of Hershey’s ice cream, which it will replace with a selection of ice cream novelty treats.)

Cool Spot hours:

Thursdays, 1 to 5 p.m.

Fridays and Saturdays, 1 to 7 p.m.

Sundays, 2 to 5:30 p.m.

They’re open year round.

By the way, Jay named the new ice cream shop in fond memory of the many times his mother took him out for ice cream at the Cool Spot (since closed) in Coolville, Ohio.