Star Tribune
Meet Brenda Lamb, the woman who makes St. Paul’s Candyland both sweet and salty
A stop in downtown St. Paul isn’t complete — not if you have a sweet tooth — without ducking into Candyland. Founded in 1932 and purchased by Brenda Lamb’s family in 1981, the tiny shop at 435 N. Wabasha St. is an intoxicating blend of sweet scents and mouth-watering displays.
Eye On St. Paul stopped by recently and talked to Lamb about the past, present and future of Candyland. This interview was edited for length — and shortened to buy some treats (chocolate-covered peanuts, the Eye’s favorite for 50 years).
Q: You say this store runs on tradition. Tell me about that.
A: You’ve had generations who have been coming here, and they brought their children and then their grandchildren. They might have an event with one of our products, and it always has to be there.
Q: How long have you owned it?
A: Almost 43 years.
Q: What is the most popular item that you sell?
A: Chicago Mix [cheese, caramel and regular seasoned popcorn].
Q: When did that start?
A: We started displaying it for sale in ’88. And it took off so fast. People were coming in and going, “What is this?” [Before then] shops did not mix the popcorn.
Q: Whose idea was that?
A: To mix it? Mine. One Sunday it was 100 degrees, and our popcorn business does not do well at 100 degrees. People want ice cream. We’d just come back from Chicago, and I said, “I’m going to start mixing this.” I put it on the counter. And every single bag sold.
At the time, our regular seasoned popcorn was one of our bestsellers. The businesspeople downtown, they would get it for lunches, meetings, breaks.
Q: Why is Chicago Mix so popular?
A: The salty-sweet combination. You have all the classics in one bag. It’s so addicting. People have called it crack popcorn, because they can’t put it down.
Q: What did that do to the candy business?
A: Nothing. It’s totally two separate purchases. We sell just as much candy as we do popcorn. We sell massive amounts of candy.
Q: What’s your bestselling candy?
A: There are so many. That’s a hard one because you have so many different categories, a big variety of candy. I mean, when I first came here, there was no such thing as a gummy. We originally purchased from Germany, because that’s where the gummies started. Chocolate-covered peanuts was a huge seller.
Q: So, you started in 1932?
A: Yeah. But we didn’t start as Candyland. We started as Flavo Korn. All we sold was flavored popcorn. That was a very small store that was actually down the street. We moved to this location in 1979. In the late ’40s is when [the previous owner] decided to start getting candy. And he had candy when there were only a few selections. He then changed it to Candyland.
Q: How many owners have there been?
A: Actually, three. From 1932 to 1938, there was a man called Mace. I don’t know his first name. He started the store and then he sold it to Arnie [Kelsey] in ’38. We always thought [Mace] started the store to launder [money] for the mob. Arnie said [Mace] always had a lot of people coming around looking for him. And he disappeared. Never saw him again.
Q: You’ve seen lots of changes to Wabasha Street over the years.
A: Some not so good.
Q: You’re not in favor of the new bike path [in front of the store]?
A: It’s been a huge negative impact on our business and the other small retailers.
Q: How so?
A: It took away parking. Our walk-ins have seen a great decline. Before, our business was 50 percent drive-up. That has dwindled incredibly, because they can’t find a place to park. Another thing is the majority of downtown workers did not come back [after COVID-19]. There are some who came back. The big companies around here, they really support us with corporate orders. We really appreciate that.
Q: Where do you go from here?
A: We’re sustaining, and we do have a great following. But it’s decreased so much. We do our internet business out of the store. We are dabbling in wholesale now — 2024 will probably explode. We’re selling Chicago Mix. [Points to a stack of boxes] These are going to Kowalski’s.
Q: Do you think there will ever be a time when there isn’t a Candyland [in St. Paul]?
A: I hope not. I mean, I’m going to be really honest with you, if this store didn’t have such history — and such roots and great customers — with the way that the city has treated us, we would have been gone.
Q: How do you own this store and not weigh 500 pounds?
A: [Laughs] Well, we do taste-testing every day. But we are on our feet running. This is a lot of labor, physical labor. We have people who come in here and look at this as a retirement job. We just look at them. I was 21 when I came here, and no, you cannot start this at retirement age.
Q: You’re wearing an apron; you’re wearing a hat. You’re the boss and I’ve seen you mixing popcorn.
A: I’m also the janitor. I do everything. We’re very hands-on.
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and her daughter were among the throngs Friday as President Joe Biden delivered the apology that many Indigenous Americans thought would never come.
“I think he really said the things that people have been waiting to hear for generations, acknowledged just the horror and trauma of literally having our children stolen from our communities,” said Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. “It’s a powerful first step towards healing.”
Hundreds of boarding schools operated in the 19th and 20th centuries, separating Indigenous children from their families and forcing them to assimilate to European ways. Many children were abused, and at least 973 died, according to a report from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Other Minnesotans reacted similarly to Flanagan, saying they welcomed the apology but that additional action is needed to help Indigenous people move forward.
Anton Treuer, a professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University, wrote in a newsletter that the apology was “a welcome first step on the journey to healing.”
“There is no way to truly right historical injustices for the children buried at Carlisle, Haskell, and other schools, but these words set a new tone for the country and will help heal the anguish so many Natives have carried for so long,” Treuer wrote. “It gives me hope that we can come together to reconcile and heal our troubled nation.”
Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, the first Indigenous woman to serve in the state Senate, called Biden’s apology encouraging.
“This recognition of past wrongdoings is an important step towards healing relationships between the United States and the sovereign nations affected by these past systems,” Kunesh said in a statement. “This dark period of American history must be remembered and taught.”
“I have done everything in my power to remedy this situation, and it continues to get more and more violent by the day,” Moturi wrote. “There have been numerous times when I’ve seen Sawchak outside and contacted law enforcement, and there was no response. I am not confident in the pursuit of Sawchak given that Sawchak attacked me, MPD officers had John detained, and despite an HRO and multiple warrants — they still let him go.”
On Friday, five City Council members sent a letter to Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara expressing their “utter horror at MPD’s failure to protect a Minneapolis resident from a clear, persistent and amply reported threat posed by his neighbor.”
Council Members Andrea Jenkins, Elliott Payne, Aisha Chughtai, Jason Chavez and Robin Wonsley went on to allege that police had failed to submit reports to the County Attorney’s Office despite threats being made with weapons, and at times while Sawchak screamed racial slurs. Sawchak is white and Moturi is Black.
The council members also contend in their letter that the MPD told the County Attorney’s Office that police did not intend to execute the warrant for “reasons of officer safety.”
At a Friday afternoon news conference at MPD’s Fifth Precinct, O’Hara said police had been working to arrest Sawchak since at least April, but “no Minneapolis police officers have had in-person contact with that suspect since the victim in this case has been calling us.” The chief pointed out that Sawchak is mentally ill, has guns and refuses to cooperate “in the dozens of times that police officers have responded to the residence.”
O’Hara put aside the option to carry out “a high-risk warrant based on these factors [and] the likelihood of an armed, violent confrontation where we may have to use deadly force with the suspect.” The preference, he said, was to arrest Sawchak outside his home, but “in this case, this suspect is a recluse and does not come out of the house.”
ROCHESTER – The Federal Transit Administration has green-lighted an $85 million grant supporting the development of the city’s planned Link Bus Rapid Transit system.
The FTA formally announced the grant on Friday during a ceremonial check presentation outside of the Mayo Civic Center, one of the seven stops planned for the bus line. The federal grant will cover about 60% of the project’s estimated $143.4 million price tag, with the remaining funds coming from Destination Medical Center, the largest public-private development project in state history.
Set to go live in 2026, the 2.8-mile Link system will connect downtown Rochester, including Mayo Clinic’s campuses, with a proposed “transit village” that will include parking, hundreds of housing units and a public plaza. The bus line will be the first of its kind outside the Twin Cities — with service running every five minutes during peak hours.
“That means you may not even need to look at a schedule,” said Veronica Vanterpool, deputy administrator for the FTA. “You can just show up at your transit stop and expect the next bus to come in a short time. That is a game changer and a life-transformational experience in transit for those people who are using it and relying on it.”
The planned Second Street corridor is already one of the busiest roads in Rochester, carrying more than 21,800 vehicles a day, and city planners have talked for years about ways to reduce traffic congestion in the city’s downtown. Local officials estimate that the transit line, which will rely on a fleet of all-electric buses, will handle 11,000 riders on its first day of operation and save eight city blocks of parking.
Speaking to a crowd of about 100 people gathered on Friday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said the project shows Rochester is thinking strategically about how it handles growth.
“If you just plan the business expansion, and you don’t have the workforce, you don’t have the child care, the housing or the transit, it’s not going to work very well as a lot of communities across the nation have found,” Klobuchar said.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings