By Jessica Coleman -- Daily Staff Writer

FRONT ROYAL — If your sweetheart loves chocolate, you're in luck.

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, a new shop has opened in downtown Front Royal with enough chocolate to satiate even the most avid "chocoholic."

D&B Chocolates and Confections, at 120 E. Main St., opened Jan. 19 with an inventory of goodies that would make even Willy Wonka jealous.

Named for her sons, Dennis and Bryce, her chocolate shop is just as much fun as you might think, owner Michelle O'Leary said.

"Everybody that comes in is so happy and excited," she said. "Their eyes get all wide, and they go back to being a kid."

Owning the store has been years in the making for O'Leary. She said she and her husband, Dennis, an active-duty Marine, had previously co-managed a candy store in California. It was their dream to eventually own their own shop.

"We really didn't come to a place that we liked and wanted to settle down until we got here," she said. "We feel at home."

The shop features more than 20 different varieties of fudge made in the store. Mrs. O'Leary also imports gourmet truffles and chocolates from Pennsylvania and California.

Currently, D&B is having a special: buy a pound of fudge, get half a pound free. And customers like to mix and match flavors like mint chocolate, black walnut, Reese's pieces, M&M's and some vanilla flavors, O'Leary said.

Justin Graham, of Winchester, said he bought a sampling of six different flavors last week and found them all to be extremely satisfying.

"It was good," he said. "It was nice fudge."

Graham, who works in downtown Front Royal, said he enjoyed the new shop and came by frequently on breaks from his job to buy "as much fatty candy as I can."

The truffles are also popular with visitors, O'Leary said, and come in a variety of flavors including strawberry, tiramisu, and white decadence, the latter of which is Mrs. O'Leary's favorite.

For the romantic Valentine's Day gift, she recommends a custom gift basket, which she can help customers assemble to suit the recipient.

"I'll help walk them through if they're not sure what they want in the basket," she said.

Heidi Rutz, of Front Royal, said the shop made Valentine's Day shopping convenient for her when she came in Thursday to look for a gift for her husband.

"These little baskets look cute," she said.

There are also what Mrs. O'Leary calls "bin candies," things like Skittles and more mainstream confections. They can be mixed and matched, she said.

But Mrs. O'Leary said she wants everyone to be able to enjoy the candy she has in her store, so she stocks a wide variety of sugar-free candies.

"The sugar free is not calorie-friendly, but is sugar-free," she said. "I have a huge sugar-free selection. Both my husband and myself have family members that are diabetics, so we know how hard it is to find good tasting sugar-free chocolates. And being a chocoholic, I can't imagine not being able to have chocolate."

Most of the sugar-free candy at D&B is made with Maltitol, which Mrs. O'Leary said is a sugar alcohol and gives the candy its sweet taste.

"It doesn't have a bitter after-taste," she said. "You can't taste the difference."

Mrs. O'Leary said she has big plans for her little shop. She said she hopes to stick around for a long time and there has been talk about possibly adding ice cream to the menu. Eventually, she said, she would like to leave D&B as a legacy to her boys, the shop's namesakes.

Dennis, 12, the eldest, is already learning how the business works, she said, while Bryce, 4, is mostly interesting in ingesting as much candy as possible.

"Dennis actually likes to work with the customers and cut the fudge," she said. " He's getting into knowing the ins and outs of the business ... I don't think Bryce totally understands, but he likes the fact that he has a candy store."

And customers are responding positively to the new addition on Main Street, O'Leary said.

Barbara Greco, a 38-year Front Royal resident, came into the store for the first time on Thursday, and said she thinks it is a step in the right direction for downtown.

"I think it's a wonderful addition," she said. "I think it's a nice balance to the other shops on Main Street."

D&B Chocolates and Confections is open Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday 1-5 p.m. For more information, contact D&B Chocolates and Confections at 622-2455.