Margie’s Candies

When you visit Margie’s Candies, you travel back in time. The first thing you notice—besides the scent of sugar wafting through the air—is the old-fashioned aesthetic. Wood-paneled walls are covered with vintage photos, wall clocks, and commemorative plaques. Pendant lamps glow softly overhead. Tabletop jukeboxes grace each caramel-colored leather booth. Not much has changed since the shop first opened more than a century ago. Back then, it had a different name.

In 1921, a Greek immigrant named Peter George Poulos opened Securities Sweet Shop in Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood. A decade later, his son George met and fell in love with a girl named Margie—while working at the shop, of course. The two married, bought the store from Peter, and named it after Margie in 1933.

George went to war in 1941. He returned three years later but soon passed away, leaving Margie to run the shop on her own. She did so for half a century, until her death in 1995. Even today, the store remains in the family. George Poulos, the fourth-generation owner and operator, took over in 2023.

Despite the name, Margie’s is best known for its sundaes (though plenty of homemade chocolate candies still tempt customers from behind a large glass case). Order one, and you’ll be served heaping scoops of ice cream in a clamshell bowl, topped generously with whipped cream, nuts, a cherry, a vanilla wafer, and a side of hot fudge.

These sundaes have even attracted famous admirers. After performing at Comiskey Park in 1965, The Beatles were spotted at Margie’s with a handful of female fans, downing Atomic Busters—six scoops of ice cream and assorted fruit.