lil sweet treat
Candy store · West Village ·
Imported gummies and sweets from around the world, pick-and-mix
Imported gummies and sweets from around the world, pick-and-mix
"A tiny pick-and-mix candy shop originally from the West Village whose second outpost catapulted to success in its few months and opened in Midtown in November." - Emma Orlow
"Lil Sweet Treat opened in early September — a West Village candy store sourcing international gummies in a pick-and-mix format — and was met with lines down the block. Owner Elly Ross is building on the success of spots like BonBon, specializing in Swedish candy, joining a new generation of candy store entrepreneurs in New York." - Emma Orlow
"Lil Sweet Treat’s storefront is so narrow that only a few customers can fit inside at any one time, but line up they do, inside and outside — where a line wrangler is needed to control the excited crowd. The place dispenses gummy candies from around the world, some sweet, some sour, from rows of hinged Plexiglas bins. Lil Sweet Treat is the kind of store common at shopping malls two decades ago, reconceived by a new generation." - Robert Sietsema
"On the day after it opened in early September, I saw a few dozen customers already lined up for high-end gummies from Sweden, Spain, Germany, Belgium, and beyond. The shoebox-sized West Village pick-and-mix shop—a former convenience store that fits about five customers comfortably—operates like the viral BonBon: you grab a clean scoop from a bucket, duck around other customers as you survey clear containers lining the walls, and return the scoop before bringing a chic, tan-branded plastic bag to the counter to be weighed. Candies rotate frequently; I tried "Mushmallows" from Sweden (foamy and pillowy) and sour rainbow belt bites from Spain (chewy, firm, fruity). An employee seals the bag—one side reads “You deserve a…” and the other “lil sweet treat”—and I learned the shop, opened by Elly Ross, filled a void left by the closed Sockerbit. Candy sells for $19.40 a pound, demand was so high the store briefly closed to restock after a shipment melted, and Ross sources easily from Western Europe now with hopes to add sweets from Asia and South America and to introduce chocolate and hard candies in cooler weather." - Bettina Makalintal
"Think of Lil Sweet Treat as the candy shop for people who've already visited every location of BonBon. It’s newer, and there’s also only one location, which automatically makes it seem cooler. The candy is fairly similar (though note that there are far fewer sour options), and you can expect to leave with a bag of things like rainbow belt bites from the Netherlands, and cola-flavored chill guys straight out of Sweden. At $4.75 per quarter pound, you’re bound to leave having spent around $20 more than you planned to, but hey—you can’t get soft cherry bites from Belgium anywhere else. Expect a line with at least one content creator in it." - molly fitzpatrick, will hartman, willa moore
