Dallas' Bishop Arts District is due for something sweet: A shop called Hey Sugar Candy Store will open in a century-old location at 409 W. 8th St., in one of two side-by-side nearly-identical former homes that have been renovated and repurposed for retail.
According to Hey Sugar owner Kristin Brittan, the store will open at the beginning of March.
Brittan founded Hey Sugar back in 2013, with her first store in Roanoke, which has become a big family and tourist destination, with not only sweets galore but an entertainment component, including TVs airing Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and kiddie rides on the front porch.
Brittan grew up around candy: Her father was a candy distributor, and she and her sister would attend candy conventions when they were young.
The candy thing then reemerged after Brittan was married with kids. Three of her children liked going to horse shows, but her youngest son did not. So Brittan set him up with an Airstream trailer to sell candy at the riding events, and he made a killing.
She's since opened locations in Celina, College Station, Decatur, Denison, Waco, and Broken Bow, Oklahoma.
The stores have all kinds of bulk candy, plus nostalgia candy, plus funky things like suckers with scorpions inside. Some locations have ice cream, but this one will not: Instead, she promises it will boast the largest selection of vintage sodas in Texas, not unlike the location in Broken Bow.
"The Bishop Arts location will still be a Hey Sugar with the same branding, but a smaller footprint in a tiny home on 8th Street," Brittan says. "We won't be selling hand-scooped ice cream since there is so much competition for that in the area. It will be very retro, focusing on candy and old-fashioned sodas, in glass bottles."
Sodas at Hey SugarHey Sugar
They'll also have a chocolate case with gourmet chocolates.
Bishop Arts has had a vintage soda shop off and on over the years (who remembers The Soda Gallery), which turns out to be a favorite amenity of Bishop Arts landlord David Spence, who first reached out to Brittan back in 2016.
"David Spence from Good Space has wanted an old fashioned candy soda store in Bishop Arts for many years," Brittan says. "He loved the concept and felt it was good fit. Seven years after he first contacted me, we found a location that was the perfect fit being it’s a 100 year old home; very vintage!"
This has been somewhat of a Hey Sugar motif. The original location in Roanoke was built in 1880, and her location in Decatur is more than a century old.
"I love old buildings," she says.
