The Agen Block at 601 Tower Avenue — better known as the Tyomies building — is now home to a candy store. Sweeden Sweets opened on Jan. 24, serving up home-made chocolates, fudge and candy. An ice cream “jerk bar” is under construction in the other half of the ground floor, and is expected to open this summer.
Jarrod Sweeden (pictured above), his wife Amanda, and her father Daniel Klarner are the owners. The place has everything from chocolate-covered peanut-butter balls to saltwater taffy and Jelly Bellies.
Sweeden says of the future jerk bar: “I’m going to have to hire a bunch of jerks. Are you interested?” The classics never die.
According to the Superior Public Library: “In 1892 James H. Agen constructed the building at 601 Tower Avenue and named it after himself. It was designed with the idea of having businesses located on the first floor and the upper two stories would be devoted to office space. Starting in 1914, the Finnish language newspaper Tyomies-Eteenpain began printing in the Agen Block.”
The old “printing done here” sign on the side of the building — which was altered to read “drinking done here” when Tyomies Bar opened there in 2000 — now notes “candy done here.”
In other Tower Avenue news:
- The Palace Bar has reopened following that whole roof-collapse disaster last summer.
- Papa Don’s Restaurant is closed after 13 years in business.
- The price dropped again on the vacant Berger Hardware Building across the avenue from Sweeden Sweets. A handful of restaurants have struggled there over the past decade, most notably Mama Gets and most recently Marlee’s Carribean.
