Clinton’s Evans Candy Co. celebrates first anniversary
Kelli Evans baked some cookies, popped some corn, and hung up some balloons for last Saturday’s first-anniversary celebration of her Evans Candy Company in downtown Clinton.
She spent the day greeting customers at a tent in the parking lot, from where she dispensed the free treats.
Evans and her husband Phil opened the store, at 226 N. Main St., last September, and she said Saturday that she has been blessed to have the business operating “in the black” since the second month.
The store has recently undergone an interior remodeling and re-arrangement, which included kitchen facilities for Evans to create some of her customer favorites, including her own line of freeze-dried candies.
She also makes caramel apples and some other treats in the store, which she opened in the space formerly occupied by Signs Unlimited, next door to Dogwood Carpentry.
“This is something I’ve wanted to do for a really long time,” Evans said when she opened the store last year in time for the Fall Antique Festival, which is on tap for this weekend for the 2023 edition.
“We do get a lot of kids who come down from the [Clinton] middle school when they get out, and that’s been good for us,” she said Saturday.
“There’s not a lot that goes on here for the kids, and I thought this would be a fun place for kids to stop in and not have to spend a lot of money.”
When she opened last year, Evans said she was “looking for the feel of the old-fashioned mom-and-pop candy stores, sort of a blast from the past.”
Included in the store’s selection of merchandise is a selection of retro-style bottled soda pop, with all kinds of funky flavors. There are more than a dozen flavors, even dill pickle. Some are available already chilled for single-bottle sales.
There also is a large variety of taffy flavors offered, including some spiced with peppers.