‘Sweet!’ Dreams in Belmar

Chocolate, muffins, cupcakes, fudge – Heaven for sugar junkies, and now all available under one roof at Sweet! on 10^th Avenue in Belmar.

The brand-new shop featuring homemade baked goods and chocolate is owned by the mother-daughter duo of Lena and Cali Lowe of Freehold.

The 22-year-old Cali said, “We were all doing our own separate jobs – this is a hobby we’ve been doing a long time. We made lollipops and party favors, and cakes for friends and family out of our house. We always wanted our own business and our friends said ‘Why don’t you take it to the next level?’ I do all the baking – muffins, cupcakes – my mother’s the chocolatier.”

Fine art and tomatoes to artisanal homemade baked goods and chocolate may seem like a bizarre transition.

“I originally wanted to be a marine biologist, then I went for art. My grandfather had an import business for tomatoes from Italy, and my mother helped run that for a decade,” said Cali, a recent graduate of Brookdale Community College, Lincroft. “I was working in retail – we eventually saved up enough money to open Sweet!”

Hand-made sweets

Upon entering Sweet!, you’re enveloped in the delightful aroma of chocolate, more so than baking. No baking because Cali’s cupcakes are already so popular she had six dozen remaining at 1:30 p.m. on a weekday, and was patiently waiting for her deliveryman with supplies to whip up some more.

The shop is simplistic – hardwood floors and soothing cobalt blue walls mainly unadorned unlike many other confectioners – possibly to draw attention to the stars in Sweet, the candy and baked items.

Two refrigerated glass cases brim with Lena’s chocolates with cream fillings such as key lime and maraschino cherry; fudge; caramels; peanut butter cups; and chocolate-covered strawberries and pretzels. A third case is devoted to Cali’s baked goods such as mini-Bundt cakes in red velvet and lemon poppy seed; cheesecakes in blueberry, plain or strawberry; and banana walnut bread, and pumpkin bread.

Sweet! does offer “garden-variety” chocolate-covered Oreos, but how about chocolate-covered Twinkies and Nutter Butters?

While Belmar may have candy shops – and bakeries – there are no establishments where the two are married in the same shop, and the Lowe’s chose Belmar not only because they enjoy it here, but, following a day at the beach, “We came up 10^th, and there were two stores for rent. We called and it was reasonable, and it was a done deal,” Cali said.

Sweet! is unlike any other “because we do everything by hand; we take pride in what we do – we’re more about quality rather than quantity. The time it takes to do cream centers – as opposed to just dunking a cherry in chocolate – that’s what separates us,” said Cali. “We’re very family-oriented, we’re very home-y, we’re humble. We want to make people feel good when they come in.”

Cali’s specialty is full-sized cupcakes, not the typical “mini-cupcakes” found at a lot of bakeries. Flavors range from the “common” such as butter cream, strawberry and vanilla to German chocolate cake, banana with vanilla frosting, and red velvet with cream cheese frosting, and are priced at $1.25 each. “We make it affordable for people. For six cupcakes, it’s $6 – the more you buy, the more you save. A pound of our chocolate is $15,” Cali said.

Lena creates handmade chocolate in the Belgian tradition in molds, and also by dunking by hand without molds – like chocolate-dipped Twinkies, Oreos, pretzels, and apples. She admitted being a chocolatier is second nature to her, and her hardest candies to create are chocolates with larger cream centers. The shop’s version of the ever-popular turtle is the Chuckie, chock-full of nuts, caramel and chocolate, and named posthumously as a dedication and to honor Cali’s grandfather, who adored the confection made by Lena.

Cali said business was “Pretty good actually – for people not knowing we’re here, we’ve done pretty well,” noting some customers don’t even exit Sweet! before eating most of their purchase. The shop’s website is being refined by Lena’s brother, a webmaster, and will be up and running by the fall. Sweet! also sells attractive gift cards, available in any denomination.

The Lowes also keep customers satisfied by accepting custom orders and, “We do birthdays, weddings and baby showers, but nothing outrageous yet,” said Cali. “If they wanted an order for a wedding, we’d do a sheet cake, cupcakes – pretty much anything for a wedding.”

The duo is primarily doing things as they go along so far as inventory, but will be adding saltwater taffy, and also possibly cotton candy, according to Cali. She hasn’t seen any unusual requests, yet Lena has gotten requests for chocolate-covered Funny Bones – even though they’re already chocolate-covered.

Rewarding work

Living together, working together – how do these two women get along?

“We have always wanted to work together – we actually get along believe it or not,” said Cali. “We have always worked great as a team we just feel owning this business has amplified that bond. Yes, we do live together but we’ve learned to separate our business relationship from our mother-daughter relationship.”

The mother-daughter duo also bonds during what little downtime they have by working out together, or doing chores around the house, yet they devote most of their time to Sweet! It may not be a challenge working together, but keeping with up with demand sometimes is.

Cali mentioned, “Probably the most challenging is just filling things. Rewarding is probably the smiles on people’s faces when they bite into our baked goods or chocolate.”

Lena concurred about keeping up with demand, yet her hard work is rewarded, and, “I love it when we get repeat customers for fudge, then you know you’re doing something right.”

Despite keeping on their toes constantly at Sweet!, neither mother or daughter tires of doing what they love, and both said, “We never get sick of doing it. It’s fun – it doesn’t feel like it’s work.”

Sounds as if their devotion will provide nothing but ‘Sweet!’ dreams for both ladies.

The hours at Sweet! are Tuesday to Thursday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The phone number is 732-280-8889. Its website is being refined and will be finished by the fall, with the address of www.sweetbelmar.com, and its Facebook address is www.facebook.com/SweetBelmar.