An old postcard from the early 1900s shows the first Dinstuhl’s store, located at Main and Washington.
Born in Quincy, Illinois, just one year after the end of the Civil War, a young man named Charles Dinstuhl eventually moved south. In Memphis, he had two business ventures in mind, which he opened side by side on Main Street in 1902. The first was something he called a “Theatorium” — a tiny theater showing the new “moving pictures.” The little nickelodeon didn’t last long, unable to compete when larger, grander movie palaces opened Downtown.
The second business, however, an unassuming candy shop, would make his family famous in this city for generations.
Dinstuhl’s Candies opened at Main and Washinton, and Charles promoted the new venture with newspaper advertisements that extolled the virtues of his products. A typical ad explained, “The pleasure of eating pure candy can be had for little money at Dinstuhl’s confectionary store. How little? Well, you can buy a 5-cent sample of our cream chocolate, toasted marshmallows, or buttercups. But what’s the use? You’d surely want more. Take home a pound box for 40 cents. Then you’ll know why you wanted more.”
In 1983, Dinstuhl’s embarked on its largest expansion to date, when it opened its “Candy Kitchen” at 5280 Pleasant View Road. At 11,000 square feet, the new facility was almost 30 times the size of the original store Charles Dinstuhl had opened on Main Street more than 80 years before.
Other promotions made customers aware of the impressive variety of candies produced at the tiny, 400-square-foot store. An Easter ad touted Dinstuhl’s “Spring Shower of Treats” and announced they sold “enough varieties to please everybody,” with all of them “calculated to interest your palate and please your heart.”
Within a few years of opening, Dinstuhl's was no longer described as a "candy store” but as "high-grade confectioners." This vintage photo of the elaborate interior shows why.
As the business prospered, Dinstuhl’s moved into larger spaces. Within six years of the company’s founding, the company — no longer just a “candy store” but described in the city directories as a “High-Grade Confectioner” — moved to 91 South Main, then again to 64 N. Main. By the 1930s, it had relocated to 1149 Union, and in the next decade, had found a new home at 120 Madison.
Even though the company address kept changing, there was one constant: the Dinstuhl family presence. When Charles retired in the 1930s, his son Charles Jr. began running the business. Over the years, other descendants — Charles Jr.’s son, Edward, and then his son, Gary — have been involved, making Dinstuhl’s one of the oldest family-owned businesses in Memphis.
In the 1960s, the company made one of its boldest moves. It seems every retailer on Main Street wanted to move east. In 1962 Dinstuhl’s opened in the brand-new Laurelwood shopping center at Poplar and Perkins.
The grand opening featured a rather unusual ribbon-cutting ceremony. Mayor Henry Loeb sliced through a “ribbon” of melted chocolate to welcome customers into the new store. Eight-year-old Gary Dinstuhl, who would grow up to run the busness, handed out treats by the front door, and youngsters could reach through a “whirling wheel that stops in front of holes cut into four boxes” and reach for free candy. Also inside the store, a sign in the shape of a railroad crossing warned customers to “Stop, Look, and Lick ’Em.”
In 1983, Dinstuhl’s embarked on its largest expansion to date, when it opened its “Candy Kitchen” at 5280 Pleasant View Road. At 11,000 square feet, the new facility was almost 30 times the size of the original store Charles Dinstuhl had opened on Main Street more than 80 years before.
In 2003, more changes took place when Larry and Judy Moss purchased the company. Although their daughter, Marissa Moss is involved with daily operations, yet another Dinstuhl — Rebecca Dinstuhl — is president of the business. This new team improved the manufacturing operations and added new products that became instant classics; especially popular are their chocolate bark, pecan fudge, cashew crunch, and (when in season) chocolate-covered strawberries. Another addition was something Charles Sr. surely never envisioned — a thriving online business (dinstuhls.com), with Dinstuhl’s products shipped around the globe.
Today, the company is called Dinstuhl’s Fine Candies. The manufacturing operations take place on Pleasant View, and retail centers are located there as well as in Laurelwood (436 Grove Park), Germantown (7730 Poplar Ave. #3), Collierville (231 New Byhalia Rd), and Downtown (147 S. Main).
More then a century ago, an early newspaper ad assured customers, “We have expert knowledge in candy-making, and here you’ll get purity.” Some 120 years have passed, and the Dinstuhl family can still make that promise.
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