Best of New York 2014 • Shopping

• CuRious Candy by Cynthia Rowley

  43 E. 78th St., nr. Madison Ave.; 212-288-1163

  This upscale candy boutique courtesy of fashion designer Cynthia Rowley is as meticulously curated as sweet-tooth mecca Dylan’s Candy Bar is sprawling. �CuRious might even come across as uptight, if the clerks weren’t so welcoming: They understand that, between the steep prices and installation-art décor, plenty of folks come just to gawk and pose for pictures. And gawking is half the fun. Rowley’s candy shop is nestled on the second floor of her flagship, tucked away at the end of a branch-canopied courtyard. The entrance�festooned with twisted branches, giant metal roses, and foggy mirrors�hints at the shop’s Alice in Wonderland interior, where a stuffed white peacock perches on a dead tree by a cornucopia of custom-made confections like edible chocolate teacups, cotton-candy bouquets, and cans of cookies-and-cream caramel corn. The loose artisanal candy (sea-salted dark-chocolate caramels, vanilla clodhoppers, rainbow licorice laces) goes for $14 per pound, but there’s no self-service, so eager kids can’t grab too much, too fast. (There’s also the less secluded street-level West Village storefront, which debuted at 396 Bleecker Street in May.)

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