Made by our family just for yours.
You might say it all started when Frank Sarris found a sweetheart. As a young man trying to win the affections of the lovely Athena, Frank presented her with a gift as sweet as she was, a box of chocolates. Athena's face lit up as she lifted the lid and Frank knew he was in love. He also knew he could make better chocolate. And so he began, first producing small amounts in his basement for friends and family and then, as the word spread, he began making more and more candy for the local market. Frank and Athena married soon after and Sarris Candies was born in the basement of their Canonsburg home. Working as a forklift operator by day and candy maker by night, he realized that one or the other- his candy enterprise or his career had to end. Thankfully for the thousands of "sweet-tooths" that enjoy Sarris chocolate, Frank Sarris quit his job and started stirring batches full time. By 1963, Frank had outgrown his basement. So he built a small candy shop next door to his house. Five years later, the house was demolished to make room for an even bigger candy shop and he and Athena settled into an apartment above the shop. Over the years, Frank never forgot the quaint soda fountains of his youth which sold ice cream and penny candy. In 1982, with the help of his son, he created his very own old-fashioned ice cream parlour complete with period-style, red and brass booths and shimmering crystal chandeliers. Each year, thousands of people come from miles around to sample sundaes and other cool treats made with Sarris' homemade ice cream and toppings. Many family members helped to build the business which has turned into a Canonsburg landmark. Today, the Sarris Chocolate Factory and Ice Cream Parlour fill an area the size of a football field with over 100 yards of chocolate, penny candy, ice cream and life-like plush toys. To this day, Frank and Athena are still sweet on each other. ? One taste of Sarris Chocolates and you'll fall in love, too! ?
It's magical, it's captivating, and best of all, this castle is made of chocolate. It's one of the many decorations you can find at the Saras Chocolate Factory in Ice Cream Parlor in Canonsburg. If you can draw it, we can make it out of chocolate. Okay, regardless, you can, and you can, whether it's done by hand, whether you do it, but we have a ways to sit there and get your thoughts onto a piece of chocolate. Bill Saras runs the family business, started by his dad Frank Saras more than 50 years ago. If you There's probably about 3,000 different just little chocolate novelties. That's the molds. And then when you look at everything else that you see around here, no, we never really counted them, no, there's a lot. Seasonal decorations and toys fill the store, making Saras Candy's a popular destination spot. I just love all the decorations and all the, And I wanted my little granddaughter to see it because she's never been here. So we just decided to come and get ice cream today and look at all the candy and things. For Marlene's 5-year-old granddaughter, Lily, it'still the candy. It looks really delicious, and I would Customers line up in the candy shop and in the ice cream parlor. The long lines are not surprising to Senator Tim Salibai. Maybe they say Hershey's the sweetest place on earth, but I gotta tell you, I think here in Canasburg and Saras Candy's is really the sweetest place on earth. The chocolate-covered pretzels are among the senator's favorites. So let's go right to the production line. This is going to be the best tasting pretzel. If you would want to eat one right now, off of the belt, that's going to be one of the best tasting pretzels that you could have. I've never had a bad taste in such a way. Bill Saras' daughter Athena helps run the business. She says they The special ingredients are really pretty simple. Of course we do have some secrets, but we use quality, fresh ingredients. Fresh home milk, real sugar. Nothing fake or artificial. No preservatives in our chocolate. So this is, when you have good quality things that you put in your chocolate and you have quality people making and producing your chocolate, you end up with a great product. But last February, this landmark business was struck by fire. Senator Solabi, a volunteer firefighter, was among the first to respond. He says they had a real mess on their hands, but the response was great. Everything clicked that morning. What we needed to do, all the aspects of the folks that were helping extinguish the fire, everything clicked right. And again, it made a mess and it was costly in a sense because it was a food product. They had to get rid of everything that they had here. Structurally though, we're very fortunate to be able to stop it basically in its tracks. And the community response overwhelmed Bill Saris. People were coming and actually telling, calling us and saying, hey, I'm going to bring a shovel and I'm going to bring a broom and I'm going to help you clean because we want you opened up as soon as possible. That's about as much as I can say as far as telling you how the community responded. Everybody, this is their place. I said, our name might be on the building, but we found out this is the community's place. This is our customer's place. Although the Ice Cream Parlor did not reopen until June, candy production lines were up and running in just a few days. With over 200 employees, Saris Candies is not only important to satisfying your sweet tooth, it's an important part of the region's economy. Bill Saris says despite the nation'sour economy, business is still sweet. We work harder. We make a really good quality product. There's a value there. People know that. So people are buying better. They're buying better products. They're buying quality products. And I think we fit that for them. And chocolate's a happy food. So when you eat candy, you get happy. They kept everybody on, even during the shutdown of fire because they were used for helping clean up that, but enabled them to keep their jobs and keep their livelihood. Because some of these people have this great craft. And to lose them for a while, they may have moved on to another type of a job. You lost what they knew how to do that is very, very special and very unique to Saris Candies and the overall productions. And it's that friendly atmosphere that's key to a strong company and a strong community. In Canonsburg, I'm Howard Ondrick reporting.