Business Beat: Roxy’s Candy Lounge expands to Longview | For Subscribers Only

Roxy’s Candy Lounge is set to open in about a month inside of The Pink Candle in downtown Longview.

Jackson Fulton and Lana Niemann opened the first Roxy’s Candy Lounge in Gladewater in 2024, and the “candy with a cause” business always planned to expand.

The business is about more than profits.

Jackson’s daughter, Roxy, is autistic, and Jackson and Niemann started Roxy’s Candy Lounge to provide a place where Roxy could learn to run a business. Also, 20% of all income the shops generate will be used to equip Roxy Rooms in local schools. The sensory rooms provide a place for children on the autism scale to go when they need to decompress.

“It’s just growing by leaps and bounds,” Niemann said of the Gladewater store. 

“We’re getting a lot of outside sales there,” she continued, including providing gifts for banks to give to customers and parties.

She said their goal is to open a Roxy’s Candy Lounge in every East Texas city.

“Longview is just our first step to that,” Niemann said. “We truly believe in ‘candy with a cause.'”

The Longview location, which will be at 101 E. Tyler St. will have its own entrance into The Pink Candle.

Niemann said they’ve already provided four Roxy Rooms in area schools, and they’re working on the fifth and sixth.

The Longview store will sell different types of fudge, a variety of “chocolate-covered” items, including strawberries, potato chips and bacon, for instance.

The store won’t sell candy immediately at the Longview store, but it will sell gift baskets for men, women and children for all sorts of occasions

Roxy’s Candy Lounge will be open 11 a.m. -8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday.

Fisherman’s Market changes

Fisherman’s Market Restaurant and Oyster Bar in Longview is hoping to appeal to younger customers when it starts offering mixed beverages.

The restaurant has received approval from the city of Longview for a couple of changes it needs to apply to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission for a mixed beverage license. The changes included a variance that would allow the sale of alcoholic beverages there even though the building is less then 300 feet from Bramlette Elementary School.

The shopping center where the restaurant is located shares a rear property line with the campus.

The city also has approved a specific use permit to allow the restaurant to sell mixed beverages. (The Family Dollar store next door sells alcoholic beverages.)

General Manager Charity Estrada said the restaurant already sells beer and wine.

“We do have people who come and ask for (mixed drinks),” she said.  

The restaurant wants to keep its longtime customers while also appealing to a younger clientele.

The restaurant also has added Crawfish Enchiladas to its menu with plans to add other new items as well.

Fisherman’s Market opened in 1973, making it one of the oldest restaurants in Longview.

Spriro Majalis started the restaurant, and his grandchildren still own it. Estrada was their nanny when they were children.

— Business Beat appears Wednesday. If you have items for the column, email to newsroom@newsjournal.com; mail to Business Section, Longview News-Journal, P.O. box 1792, Longview, TX 75606; or call (903) 237-7744.