Sugar Shack 2.0 debuts in downtown Menlo Park

No, you’re not seeing things when you drive into the parking lot adjacent to Draeger’s. The Sugar Shack is back — just in time for Halloween and the holidays!

“It’s really a Sugar Shack pop up,” explained owner Suzi Tinsley during a recent preview visit. “I’ve assumed the lease from Anthem for a year. If all goes well, I will stay longer.”

Suzi told us she kept the event part of the business going — proms, bar mitzvahs, corporate gatherings — after closing her Santa Cruz Avenue store in 2014. “But I really missed the community, having the older kids come in after school and the grandmas bringing in the preschool set.

“Plus my three younger kids said, ‘Mom, you have to get back in the game. We haven’t had the fun are four older siblings had.'”

Suzi, who grew up locally, remembered always having a penchant for candy. “When I was in 7th grade, I’d scribble ‘sugar shack’ on my notepaper, and when I was in high school I worked at the Candy Depot.”

The new store is smaller than her SCA space but given that it’s wider, it doesn’t feel at all cramped. And like the original store, it’s a visual eye feast.

Sugar Shack will be open seven days a week — Monday through Saturday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and Sunday from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm — and Suzi is looking forward to seeing the now more grown up kids and their parents and meeting new little ones.

“The outpouring of support is tremendous,” she said “I love that people are excited that the Sugar Shack is back.”

Photos by Irene Searles (c) 2019