The Times’ new blog The Local tries to go where few, if any, bloggers have gone before—inside the Putnam Candy Store. Contrary to what the store’s web site says, there is no candy to be found. Here’s the play-by-play:

So the other day, at 12:30 on a brilliant afternoon, I tried the doorknob. Notwithstanding the 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours listed on the Web site, the door was locked. After a bit, though, it opened slowly from the inside. A 50ish man in a work uniform of some sort, holding an open tallboy of Bud, peered quizzically out from behind the door.

Um, is this the store? I asked, trying to peer past him. In the shadows I could make out the figures of two or three other men sitting and talking. The beer in the greeter’s hand was the only visible merchandise.

No, he said. Across the street. He lifted his chin in the direction of an open bodega cater-corner across Putnam and Grand and gently closed the door in my face.

The blog also gets City Councilwoman Letitia James to go on record about the store. There’s a lot of traffic, people going in and out, she told The Local. I don’t know what you’d attribute that to — a lot of people buying milk, or people buying something stronger. Grand and Putnam has been a challenge since I first got elected. It’s improved greatly but we still have our challenges, and the candy store may be one of them.

Have any readers ever been inside?
At a Local Candy Store, But Where Are the Mars Bars? [NYT/The Local] GMAP