Sugar High

With its stockpiles of colorfully wrapped treats and bright red walls plastered in vintage-replica signs, Rocket Fizz feels something like a cross between Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory and a comic shop. From giant jawbreaker candies and strands of fizzy, sour Zots to mustachioed eyeglasses and massive, hand-shaped drink koozies, there's enough stuff here to keep you bouncing off the walls even without the sugar rush.

Susan and Robert Hale opened the new sweets shop — the second of its kind in Ohio — on Euclid Avenue after Susan watched an episode of Undercover Boss featuring the Rocket Fizz franchise. "I thought it looked like a lot of fun," she says.

The timing was also right. The couple had closed their Cuyahoga Falls-based pizzeria Rockin' Bob's a few years back and were ready for their next venture. Embracing the store's playful attitude, they went for it. "We were looking for work, and why not?" she says.

Now the 2,500-square-foot shop, which opened its doors in May, is stacked floor to ceiling and wall to wall with candy of every shape, size — and era. "It's fun to see people's reactions," says Susan, a self-described candy freak. " 'Oh, my God, I remember this from when I was a kid.' You hear that in the store over and over again."