By Don Bradley
Cheesecake truffle, raspberry rose macaron, cashew caramel cluster, chocolate amaretto swirl fudge…
Hold that thought.
The Sweet Granada, a specialty candy store in Emporia, Kan., that sells chocolate all over the country, is coming to Red Bridge Shopping Center.
The business was started 20 years ago by a mother and daughter team. Three guys, each named Steve, played pivotal roles, and the manager of the new Red Bridge shop seems to have been on this course his whole life.
“I told my mom when I was little that I wanted to run a candy store when I got big,” Derek Krause, 32, said with a chuckle last week as he worked to get the new location ready.
The site, next to Crows Coffee on the shopping center’s north end, has undergone a complete makeover from the earlier ice cream tenant.
Opening is set for May 3rd and 4th.
Sweet Granada was started in 2004 by Toni Bowling and her daughter, Kim Redeker. Toni’s husband, Steve, her son, Steve, and Kim’s husband, Steve, all pitched in. As did other family members.
In 2013, the shop moved to its current location next to the Granada Theatre. Bowling is now retired.
Krause is not family.
“But I’ll claim him,” Redeker said.
He started working at the shop while a student at Emporia State University and learned all aspects of candy making. He later left for stops in Texas and Oregon, but was convinced to return in 2022 by Redeker who was kicking around the idea of another store.
“I know her values and I was willing to take the leap,” Krause said. “I’d been looking at Kansas City locations and jumped on this the day it posted.”
He likes the new vitality of Red Bridge, particularly the proximity of Wonderscope, the hands-on museum which draws hundreds of children every week. Most sales, however, are gift-giving.
For now, plans call for most products to be made in Emporia and brought to Red Bridge.
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