It’s a sweet—and sugary—Pride month over at Lake View’s Windy City Sweets, 3308 N. Broadway.
To celebrate, the shop is raising funds for Center on Halsted through the sale of rainbow treats, including a brand new rainbow fudge. Fifteen percent of each sale will be donated to the Center.
John Manchester, co-owner of Windy City Sweets, said this year’s partnership came about when he was brainstorming for ways to support Pride month at the shop. With the store being part of the neighborhood since 1983, it was important to him to give back to the community, he said.
This year, Windy City Sweets was also selected to put products in the 2024 Oscar’s Swag Bag, which Manchester said helped further build their platform.
“We’ve got a lot of momentum in the media with that,” he said. “We wanted to bring that power to the neighborhood, and also drive Pride.”
This isn’t the first time Windy City Sweets has participated in queer-related activities—or even with Center on Halsted. The store has put together gift baskets or cards for the Santa Speedo Run, as well as donated ice cream to different socials and groups marching in the Pride parade.
Since the shop has been around for 41 years, they get to see regulars who come back to the city every Pride month, from nearby towns or different states altogether. They recently had customers who hadn’t been back for 10 years, but came in since they had known the original owners.
“We do get this kind of a homecoming, where people come in that have been coming here for 40 years,” he said. “Maybe they lived in the neighborhood and moved away for whatever reason, and they’re coming back. It’s a lot of fun and it’s a great experience … and they’re here for a great occasion.”
Some of the special Pride treats include milk, dark and light chocolates with rainbow sprinkles, pretzels, Oreos, Twinkies, Jelly Belly’s and Rice Krispies. This is also the first year the shop has made its signature Pride piece, a vanilla-based rainbow fudge. Manchester said the fudge has been a big success this year and he plans to bring it back in 2025.
This year’s Pride is also personal to Windy City Sweets, with one of their employees having competed in the World Gay Boxing Championship in Chicago June 20.
The store is also home to much more than just the rainbow treats. One of the store’s specialties, for example, is its licorice selection — consisting of many jars of hard, soft, salty and sweet candy. Quite a few have also been imported, coming from countries such as the Netherlands and Germany.
Manchester—who has co-owned the store alongside his wife since 2011—said his wife has always loved candy and had a dream to own a store herself, which inspired their ownership journey. All three of their adult children have also helped out at Windy City Sweets in one way or another, with their daughter even going on to become a food scientist.
One of his favorite parts of owning the shop is seeing people reconnect with something from their past. He’s seen longtime customers come back with children, those children coming back and talking about their parents’ experiences or just folks getting excited about certain items on the shelves.
“When people come in here, it’s memories that’s what they see,” he said. “They see [a candy] and it’s like, ‘Oh, I remember my grandfather had that,’ or ‘Oh, my dad always had that’ … candy brings back happiness, it brings back memories. What’s not to like about candy?”