Shops With Summer Sweets on the East End

Retro or modern, traditional or experimental, homespun or international, the East End’s locally owned sweet shops have all your cravings covered.

Often, in chocolate.

Sometimes in sprinkles.

And in the last year, at least two new candy and frozen yogurt spots have opened up in the area, proving that mom-and-pop shops still have a place here.

The newest entry is East Hampton’s The Sweet Spot on Newtown Lane, a combination self-serve fro-yo bar and candy/dessert store owned by longtime local residents Tom and Maureen Cooper. Inside the bright, modern shop visitors can dish themselves up 10 flavors of frozen yogurt, including nondairy options, alone or in delicious combinations like pineapple vanilla, which mimics the taste of Walt Disney World’s famous Dole Whip, Tom Cooper said.

But that’s not all. The Sweet Spot serves a variety of milkshakes that can be pumped up with the addition of toppings from the fro-yo toppings bar, creating a blended frozen treat similar to those found at big name ice cream shops.

Then there’s the candy bar, which features dozens of kinds of bagged chocolate, fruity and gummy candies, lollipops and prepackaged favorites like Reese’s peanut butter cups. M&Ms and various candy bars.

On top of all of that, The Sweet Spot bakes and sells cookies, doughnut “spots” (aka holes) and cold brew coffee and sweet coffee drinks.

“We tried to come up with a concept where everything can blend together,” Tom Cooper explained in a recent interview. “The candy and the toppings work with the frozen yogurt and the milkshakes and even some of the coffee drinks and then the cookies and doughnuts complement that and we hope it all works together.”

Cooper, owner of Thomas Cooper Construction, bought the previous building on the site, a former dry cleaners, and demolished it in 2022. His company put up the new building, which houses The Sweet Spot and his company’s offices.

The inspiration for The Sweet Spot came from the couple’s memories of the mom-and-pop sweets shops they frequented as kids in East Hampton, Tom Cooper said.

“We had Marley’s and Penny Lane and Dreesen’s that we would go to after school and, you know, they’ve been gone a long time,” he said. “Our kids didn’t have things like that and my wife and I felt like that was something missing in East Hampton.”

Why frozen yogurt?

Cooper said he liked the idea of a mostly self-serve treat — patrons fill their own cups and cones from machines mounted in one of the walls of the shop — that would free the staff up to focus on keeping the store neat and clean and providing great customer service. The interior of The Sweet Spot was designed to be bright, colorful.

“We based it on our sense of style and preferences for fun and color, but clean and simple,” Cooper said. “I think it feels like East Hampton in there. It fits our village.”

Last summer, Jeanie and Tom Strong opened a similar shop, Sundaes on Main, in Bridgehampton. The store features a variety of frozen yogurt flavors, all self-serve, and a toppings bar plus a separate candy section where shoppers can load up bags from bulk dispensers and pay by weight.

Strong has even gone on to open a companion SundaesCandyRoom shop on Etsy where she sells prepackaged and custom candy mixes.

The new shops are not alone in beckoning those with a sweet tooth. Candied Anchor, Dylan’s Candy Bar, Bridgehampton Candy Kitchen and The Fudge Company on the South Fork are also catering to candy needs. On the North Fork there are Love Lane Sweet Shoppe, North Fork Chocolate Company and North Fork Girl Chocolates, among others. Most are longtime family businesses, or those opened by locals who are adamant about maintaining a small-town style in their shops.

At the Candied Anchor, the feel is quintessentially Montauk, but the candy selection features an international twist.

Owner Jillian Rennar opened the shop in 2014 with an aim to give customers a selection they can’t find anywhere else. Does she carry some staples? Sure, there are malted milk balls and Mary Janes, but a few feet away, shoppers will find sour peachy buttons, Japanese gummies and Irish chocolates.

“Whenever I travel I eat candy, from all over the world, and I bring some of my favorites to the shop,” Rennar said. A recent trip to Italy inspired her to order some new chocolates and a bubblegum that tastes “like cheesecake with a fruit tart on top.”

“Today I just got in some gummy world globes with a soft center from Spain,” Rennar said during a recent interview. “And we have a big selection of Japanese candy, about 20 to 30 kinds at any time.”

The Candied Anchor also carries treats — including homemade marshmallows — prepared by a local baker, Rennar’s mother, Dawn Rennar of Dawn’s Delicious Delights.

“They melt in your mouth. My favorite is the toasted coconut with chocolate chips on the outside,” Rennar said. “They will change your marshmallow world.”

And to quench a thirst, The Candied Anchor serves Slush Puppies, a cross between a Slurpee and a melted snow cone. “It’s a chunky, icy drink, not carbonated,” Rennar explained. “It’s a very nostalgic beach town kind of drink.”

The Candied Anchor also does sweets catering and special events.

“I’ve been open for nine years, and it is very surreal sometimes. I’m seeing the kids of Montauk grow up like I did in this town,” Rennar said. “That little girl who used to love gummy bears? Now she likes sour butterflies, and so on.

“Nine years of tasting, collecting, sourcing and gathering,” she went on to say, “it’s been incredible.”

On the North Fork, Ashley Rutkowski is running Love Lane Sweet Shoppe in Mattituck with an emphasis on chocolate — the scent of which is noticeable the minute a customer steps inside. Rutkowski’s parents ran the store for some 10 years, then passed it on to their two daughters in 2019. This year, Rutkowski took over and is hoping someday her own daughter and nieces will carry on the sweet tradition.

Summer visitors and day trippers stream into Love Lane Sweet Shoppe regularly, but the store has such a loyal neighborhood following the staff knows exactly what to get ready when some customers come through the door, Rutkowski said. That kind of relationship with the community is a big part of what makes small local businesses so beloved on the East End. The chocolate-covered confections don’t hurt. At Love Lane Sweet Shoppe, they are exclusively Asher’s brand.

“Everyone has their favorites and I do like bringing in new stuff. In the last few years, we expanded on chocolate-covered pretzels with toppings … people are loving that,” Rutkowski said. Another big seller is the dark chocolate-covered marshmallows.

“We feel out our customers and I discuss things with the employees and gauge how the customers react to the new things we try,” Rutkowski said. “And we’re very seasonal, too. This time of year, we have lots of red, white and blue candies, the gummy lobsters and starfish. People get excited about seeing those things return every summer.”

In nearby Southhold, North Fork Girl Chocolates is run by “Nancy the Chocolate Lady,” as she likes to go by. The one-woman shop is packed with rich milk and dark chocolate treats, including chocolate and nut barks, turtles (clusters of caramel and pecans enrobed in chocolate) and chocolate-covered salted caramels.

For those with fruitier sweet tooth, the store sells perennial favorites such as Swedish Fish, gummy bears and licorice.

“For the little ones, chocolate lollipops are a favorite,” Nancy wrote in a recent message about her shop. “And each customer (and family) is offered a free sample each time they visit!”

New to the candy business, Tom Cooper said it’s been a pleasure meeting and getting to know others who work with sweets and candy.

“Everyone has been so nice and helpful and they really want to see you succeed. It’s a very supportive industry, I’m finding, and I’m just so glad to be a part of keeping the mom-and-pop shop feel alive here on the East End,” he said. “It’s one of the best things about my memories of growing up here and I want to see that last.”