See's Candies

Build your own box at the counter

The candy counter is the whole visit. You choose pieces one at a time, staff help assemble the selection, and the custom mixed box is what you walk out with. Read it by texture rather than by course: caramels for chew, chocolate-covered nuts for crunch, nuts and chews for a firmer bite, peanut brittle for snap, truffles for the richest end, and lollipops when you want something lighter.

If you would rather not assemble anything, the assorted boxed chocolates do the work for you, which is why they remain the default gift. The house language, chocolate treasures and candy by the piece, covers the two ways to buy here, and there is not really a third.

A confectioner, not a bakery

See's is a retail chocolate shop rather than a café. There is no bread case, croissant tray or pastry menu, and no named head baker or pastry chef, because the work is candy-making: small batches, fresh ingredients and a method the company has kept consistent for a century. That consistency is the product as much as any single piece, since people arrive expecting the same box they remember.

The story starts in Los Angeles in 1921, when Mary See opened the first shop in the city, and the house still uses the phrase Mary See's way as shorthand for that tradition. The company is family-owned and headquartered in Carson, California. Unlike the brand's Grove shop or its LAX kiosk, the La Cienega branch in the Baldwin Hills and Crenshaw area works as a neighborhood chocolate shop, old-school and family-friendly, organized around efficient selection and gift displays.

What to put in the box

For a gift, lean classic with assorted chocolates, richer with truffles, or more varied by mixing brittle, caramels and nut pieces into a single box. Each version reads differently on arrival, which is the practical use of a counter that lets you decide piece by piece. The counter is built for quick decisions, which is why it also works for a last-minute gift.

For yourself, candy by the piece is the point: choose four or five contrasting textures rather than a themed set, and the box becomes a tasting instead of a supply. The public story here is not a chef's. It belongs to Mary See and to a collective candy-making tradition built on fresh ingredients, small-batch production and attention to detail.