Sweets & Beats Coming to Grand Avenue

When it rains, it pours . . . candy. Last week I got the lowdown on Smeeks, a new candy shop coming to Central and Camelback. And now there's already word of another place in the works for Grand Avenue -- right between vintage tiki bar Bikini Lounge and alternative performance and music...

By Michele Laudig

June 16, 2009

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When it rains, it pours . . . candy.

Last week I got the lowdown on Smeeks, a new candy shop coming to Central and Camelback. And now there's already word of another place in the works for Grand Avenue -- right between vintage tiki bar Bikini Lounge and alternative performance and music venue The Trunk Space.

Husband-and-wife team Liam Murtagh and Emily Spetrino-Murtagh just signed a lease on the space where they hope to open Sweets & Beats by mid-August. (They're moving in in July.) It'll be part record store, part candy shop, and part gift boutique.

"I'm way into the candy aspect," says Spetrino-Murtagh. "I want it to be almost Willy Wonka-style -- jars of crazy candies, nostalgic candies, candy cigarettes, wax mustaches, gumballs, rock candy . . ."

And not Snickers. But Spetrino-Murtagh and her husband specifically mention Snickers as something that won't be part of their lineup.

Expect "strange hours," too. Spetrino-Murtagh is going for the hoards of kids that swarm the neighborhood after school.

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