In the corner of Issaquah, a traditional brown and white chalet sits blanketed around manicured greenery. Fir trees tower over the shop and a crescent of mountains fills the backdrop.

Painted in an old English font on the front of the chalet reads Boehm’s Candy.

The 67-year-old hallmark-like shop is a staple to Issaquah — and a hidden treasure to others.

Inside, shop assistants’ fashion themselves in traditional Swiss attire. Confections bulge from the shelves, each packaged in a bronze box or neatly wrapped in cellophane.

In the back is where candymakers hand roll, dip and drizzle warm chocolate over truffles.

In another room, a row of copper kettles lines the wall, and a large stainless-steel table fills the room, where two long and bumpy mounds are cooling — Boehm’s classic rocky road.

Opposite the table, a burner swirls around 500 pounds of chocolate.

The owner, Bernard Garbusjuk, opened the dome lid and swayed his hands upward, wafting up a rich aroma that blankets the nose.

“I love it. I still love it,” Garbusjuk said with a grin.

Boehm’s Candies offers various American and European classics such as peanut brittle, cordial cherries, chewy caramels, marzipan, nut clusters and an English toffee perfected by Garbusjuk’s son Tyson Garbusjuk.

Boehm’s also offers confections with out-of-the-box flavors, such as the Pacific Rim Fantasia — blending dark and milk chocolate, hazelnut paste, Fuji apples, mushroom salts and cactus flower honey.

Garbusjuk said he created a balsamic vinegar truffle, which marries four different kinds of balsamic vinegar.

However, he warned: “If you don’t like vinegar, it’s bad news bear.”

Tyson said their newest addition is four liquor chocolates, including Maker’s Mark, tequila and Fireball.

Boehm’s Candies in Issaquah. (Photo by Cameron Sires/Sound Publishing)

An Olympian turned candymaker

Boehm’s Candies was created 81 years ago by a man named Julius Boehm, who was born in Vienna, Austria.

Although Boehm was known as a candymaker, he was also an Olympian and an avid outdoorsman.

Boehm began his candy-making career after he fled to Switzerland in 1940, escaping Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship in Germany, then settled in the Pacific Northwest in 1941.

Not long after, Boehm and his friend began their first candy shop in Ravenna, Seattle.

With Boehm’s prior knowledge from his grandfather, a pastry chef, and help from a fellow candymaker, the shop was a success.

By 1956, Boehm moved the candy shop to Issaquah because it reminded him of his homeland. There is where the Northwest gained the first authentic alpine chalet, named the Edelweiss Chalet — symbolizing the flower of Switzerland.

In 1981, Boehm died and gave the shop to Garbusjuk, who worked closely with Boehm for over 10 years and shared many similarities, such as their immigration from Europe to the United States.

Garbusjuk, born in what is now known as Poland, was taken by his mother to be raised in East Germany until his uncle — whom Garbusjuk identified as “the fool from Alabama” — took Garbusjuk to Italy at 17 years old.

When Garbusjuk returned to West Germany, like many, he was shocked to discover the Berlin Wall had been built.

“So when I was 17 years old, I was alone in West Germany,” he said. “I didn’t go back because I didn’t want to go back to communist Germany … my parents would be bewildered because they didn’t see that happening.”

Garbusjuk said it was not until three years later that he saw his mother, and 11 years until he saw his father again.

Garbusjuk continued to live in West Germany for eight years and became an apprentice, learning the art of pastries and chocolate, following in his great-great-grandfather’s footsteps, who was a pastry chef.

In 1968, he left for America. Once in the Pacific Northwest, Garbusjuk said he began working as a chef and pastry chef at the Schnitzelbank chalet in Kenmore. Here, Garbusjuk was introduced to Boehm through a woodworker who worked on both chalets.

Eventually, Boehm offered Garbusjuk a job, and though he accepted, Garbusjuk continued to work at Schnitzelbank and a pizzeria in Seattle.

“I kept on working three jobs. I didn’t quit very well,” Garbusjuk said.

Candy makers hand-make truffles. (Photo by Cameron Sires/Sound Publishing)

Throughout the years

When looking back, Garbusjuk said the first 30 years of his 52-year career at Boehm’s Candies was a time bubble — not much had changed.

He recalled the 3-acre property as a shared space between the candy shop and Boehm’s 16 to 18 Saint Bernards, who all had kennels and dog walkers.

He also recalled horses as a common mode of transportation.

“We actually had a rail in front of the shop for people to hang the horses right here,” Garbusjuk said, pointing to the front of the Issaquah shop, where a paved parking lot and Interstate 90 now sits.

Garbusjuk said that in the past 20 to 30 years, that time bubble popped, and Boehm’s Candies felt a shift.

Some of the shifts dealt with the shop working with smaller margins, pressure from the supply chain to transfer goods promptly, and the exponential growth of transportation costs.

Other shifts dealt with the changing environment in Issaquah. Garbusjuk mentioned the integration of high-tech industries skewing the expectations of salaries right out of college.

Although he believes his employees should earn more, Garbusjuk said there is only so much he can do.

“We are a union shop … we believe strongly in health and dental care and retirement benefits and illness,” he said. “But if you’re a 20-year-old kid trying to work your future, you don’t care about how much pension you get when you’re 65 years old, you want the money now, and if you give them like $16 an hour, that’s not gonna fly.”

Through the growing pains of a changing industry and city, Garbusjuk and the team refrained from increasing prices or the quality of their confections.

“We as a small company, who feels devoted to the public, to our history and the past, we struggle when we have to make a price change,” he said. “It’s either some of the young ladies or it’s me who will say, ‘Well, no, we cannot be over $9.90, it’s just a horrible idea, this product shouldn’t cost more money.’”

A mural of Bernard and his grandchildren is painted outside of the shop. (Photo by Cameron Sires/Sound Publishing)

During the pandemic, these implications doubled down, yet Boehm’s Candies did not cut corners.

Narissa Burton, Garbusjuk’s daughter, used one of her favorite confections, a dark chocolate Arancini — a candied orange peel imported from Italy and dipped in dark chocolate — as an example of the consistency of their products. When the pandemic further changed the importation and transportation of goods, Boehm’s Candies never skimped on the quality of their confections: “We didn’t just get a regular orange peel that you can get anywhere,” Burton said.

During the pandemic, the shop felt the pains of the unknown, especially after the team already prepared for Easter and had shelves full of confections.

“We had spent like $80,000 just revamping the storefront and having new doors, new phone lines and more,” Garbusjuk said.

Burton said the shop had to revamp its website too: “I mean, I didn’t know how much website design costs until we were forced to do it.”

Garbusjuk said staff members pushed Boehm Candies to keep up with the times, weaving modern technology into the old-fashioned business. This was instrumental during the pandemic and after as the shop owners tried to grow more visibility and create different ways to reach customers.

“As far as I’m concerned, I would have still probably been catching up from the ‘80s,” Garbusjuk said.

‘Pillar of our community’

Burton recalled a customer who came in and asked how the candy shop was doing during the pandemic.

The saleswoman replied, “You know, it’s hard.”

The customer later wrote a post about Boehm’s Candies on a social media platform. Around 3,000 people shared the post.

The next day, the Boehm’s Candies’ team was overwhelmed with the customers waiting in a line that wrapped the side of the building.

Burton said customers were waiting over 30 minutes to get in the store.

“I think because of social media, it’s really changed, thankfully, because now we have lots of tourists, which we never had 15 years ago,” she said.

Since the pandemic, Burton said she noticed a shift in people supporting the local customers.

“That has been really helpful for us because we can’t compete with the big stores, especially with the volumes and the discounts that they can give. We don’t have those markets,” she said.

As owners, neither Garbusjuk nor his two children see much profit. Garbusjuk said what keeps them going is their investment in the property, the history, the past and the future.

The dedication of the owners, the loyalty of the staff — some who have worked over 20 years at Boehm’s Candies — the integration of modern systems and the community’s support has resulted in the candy shop staying true to Julius’s proclamation of his candies, which are “as high as the Alps in quality” for 81 years and counting.

“We are still successful, we are still a pillar of our community. We are still a part of it and we are still participating. Sometimes smaller, but it makes us feel good,” Garbusjuk said. “We’re a part of the whole thing and have been doing it for a long time.”

The torch Julius Boehm held at the 1936 Berlin Olympics showcased in his home. (Photo by Cameron Sires/Sound Publishing)

Boehm’s home in the Swiss Chalet. (Photo by Cameron Sires/Sound Publishing)

Memorabilia in Julius’s home on the top floor of Boehm’s Candies in Issaquah. (Photo by Cameron Sires/Sound Publishing)

Windows line the walls so customers can watch how Boehm’s confections are made. At the moment, candy makers were finishing the famous rocky road. (Cameron Sires / Sound Publishing)