A $99 sundae with 24 scoops of ice cream and sparklers. A milkshake topped with a slice of cheesecake, a giant lollipop, and a chewy caramel, all served in a chocolate-covered mug. Giant, candy-filled cocktails that arrive in smoking goblets and set you back a cool $36 each.
If it all sounds a bit extreme, you've correctly identified the ethos of Sugar Factory, a new candy shop and restaurant opening in Mall of America next week.
Joining 23 locations in cities worldwide, including New York, Manila and Bahrain, Minnesota's Sugar Factory extends the company's empire of Instagrammable candylands, first launched in 2009 in Las Vegas.
The shop is known for its floor-to-ceiling candy walls displaying hundreds of types of sweets. The kitchen churns out housemade rainbow doughnuts and pastries, milkshakes and sundaes. The menu reads like the ravings of a self-destructive chocoholic: chocolate fondue, chocolate martinis, chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream, chocolate cappuccinos, chocolate sundaes, hot chocolate, frozen hot chocolate.
Sweets aren't the only outrageous items on the menu. Among the "Monster Burgers" on offer, the Donut Burger comes topped with a grilled cheese sandwich (yes, a sandwich within a burger) and bacon. It's served on a glazed donut bun and dusted with powdered sugar. The Big Cheesy burger is topped with cheese, bacon, barbecue sauce and a scoop of gooey mac-and-cheese that cascades down the sides of the burger. Even the simple-sounding burger sliders arrive on a rainbow spectrum of colored buns, alongside a keepsake rubber duckie.
(If you want to go along for the show but prefer real food, Sugar Factory also serves a selection of more modest items, such as salads, sandwiches, soups and entrees like pan-roasted salmon, steak, fish and chips and spaghetti and meatballs.)
Beyond bright colors and reckless amounts of sugar, the success of Sugar Factory is built on a parade of celebrity endorsements and cameos, well documented on its website and social media pages: Rihanna posing with a lollipop, Rupert Grint with an ice cream sundae, Shaq polishing off a milkshake. Rapper Pitbull himself designed and tasted three of the smoking goblet cocktails, the menu tells us, and Kylie Jenner was an ambassador for the line of "couture pops," designer lollipops sold at the Sugar Factory store for $26 a piece.
According to a press release shared earlier this week, the Mall of America location, located on the 3rd level along the South Street Dining corridor, will also include "indoor and outdoor dining areas; two full-service bars and a private dining room." The shop and restaurant are slated to open November 12.
