By Elena Kadvany
E-mail Elena Kadvany
About this blog: I am a perpetually hungry twenty-something journalist, born and raised in Menlo Park and currently working at the Palo Alto Weekly as education and youth staff writer. I graduated from USC with a major in Spanish and a minor in jo...
(More)About this blog: I am a perpetually hungry twenty-something journalist, born and raised in Menlo Park and currently working at the Palo Alto Weekly as education and youth staff writer. I graduated from USC with a major in Spanish and a minor in journalism. Though my first love is journalism, food is a close second. I am constantly on the lookout for new restaurants to try, building an ever-expanding "to eat" list. As a journalist, I'm always trolling news sources and social media websites with an eye for local food news, from restaurant openings and closings to emerging food trends. When I was a teenager growing up in Menlo Park, I always drove up to the city on weekends with the singular purpose of finding a better meal than I could at home. But in the past year or so, the Peninsula's food culture has been totally transformed, with many new restaurants opening and a continuous stream of San Francisco restaurants coming south to open Peninsula outposts. Don't navigate this food boom hungry and alone! Feed me your tips on new chefs and eats and together we'll share them with the broader community.
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A third-generation Los Altos family has opened a candy shop to bring a "little slice of sweetness" to the city’s downtown, said owner Darren Howze.
Howze, who lives with his wife and two children in Los Altos, left behind a yearslong career in high-tech to open
Sugarbaby Sweetshoppe at 325 State St. last week. The space formerly housed Mr. English Coffee Co.
"If you would have said to me maybe two years ago … that I was going to drop out of technology and open a candy store or just go into retail in Silicon Valley, I would have said, 'no way,'" Howze said. "But lo and behold, here we are."
Sugarbaby Sweetshoppe is a "boutique-style sweet shop" that specializes in high-end chocolates as well as bulk candy, Howze said. The shop is
filled with bins of gummy candies, jelly beans, lollipops, packaged candies, chocolates, grab-and-go snacks and the like, plus a refrigerator stocked with bottled vintaged and specialty sodas.
"We live here in Los Altos and we feel like downtown Los Altos needed a little slice of sweetness, a place for families and kids could go and get something sweet for their day," Howze said.
Howze is also eyeing the high-end gift baskets market as well as "corporate endeavors" in the future.
Sugarbaby Sweetshoppe is open daily from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
