The candy-coated, celebrity-magnet restaurant chain Sugar Factory has quietly gone dark at its last Miami Beach address, 507 Española Way, closing without so much as a farewell post after 11 years in the city. The shutdown, which happened in late July or early August, ends a run that began in June 2015 with a red-carpet opening hosted by a then-17-year-old Kylie Jenner and included appearances over the years by Mariah Carey and Scott Disick.
According to the Miami New Times, Sugar Factory American Brasserie made no announcement before shuttering, and Google has since marked the Española Way restaurant as permanently closed. The chain's own official directory now lists no Miami or South Florida locations at all, per the same report. Sugar Factory's Instagram account, meanwhile, has been quiet since earlier this summer.
From Ocean Drive Debut to a String of Closures
Sugar Factory's first Miami restaurant opened inside the Hotel Victor on Ocean Drive, with the Kylie Jenner-hosted launch drawing major buzz for the 200-seat restaurant, which featured two patios and a King Kong Sundae built with 24 scoops of ice cream, the Miami New Times reports. A second Miami Beach location followed at 647 Lincoln Road in April 2016, and that Lincoln Road spot was ranked No. 15 among the country's most Instagrammed restaurants in 2016 — the only Florida restaurant to make that list, according to the outlet.
That early momentum didn't last. The Lincoln Road location closed by May 2018, and groups tied to both the Lincoln Road and Ocean Drive locations filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2020, a filing formally recorded as Sugar Factory Ocean Drive, LLC's Case No. 20-17981 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida, according to PlainSite. That pandemic-era filing reflected broader financial distress among Ocean Drive hospitality operators at the time.
A Gummy Factory, a New Garage Address, and More Retreats
In 2018, founder Charissa Davidovici and restaurateur David Grutman opened Sugar Factory Gummy World alongside Happy Place Donuts at 507 Española Way in Miami Beach — the address that would become the brand's final local outpost. The Gummy World location featured a machine reportedly capable of churning out 20,000 gummies a day, per the Miami New Times.
Sugar Factory then relocated its flagship from The Strand, an Art Deco hotel property on Ocean Drive owned by Nakash Holdings, to the former Firestone Garage at 1575 Alton Road in May 2023, with singer Natti Natasha hosting the debut there, according to The Real Deal. The brand also pushed further into South Florida with restaurants at Bayside Marketplace and Aventura Mall, both opened in March 2022 — but both had closed by April 2023, with the Aventura Mall location lasting only about a year.
Investor Lawsuit Alleged Millions in Diverted Funds
Behind the rapid real estate churn sat a bitter financial dispute. In a November 2023 lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, investor John Sullivan named restaurant manager Blackstar Hospitality Group and its principals Darin Feinstein and Larry Rudolph as co-defendants alongside Davidovici, alleging he had contributed $1.6 million in capital calls since 2017 to the Miami Beach operating entity, The Real Deal reported. Sullivan alleged that Davidovici and her partners failed to repay a $2.1 million promissory note and withheld nearly $1 million in profit distributions.
Sullivan also accused Davidovici of diverting $1.8 million toward a proposed doughnut shop on Española Way, and court filings described a separate capital call meant to fund an Italian restaurant sublease at 1444 Drexel Avenue involving social media influencer Frank DiMattina — who withdrew from that venture after learning of the pending investor dispute. A Sugar Factory legal officer declined to comment on Sullivan's allegations, per The Real Deal's report.
The wage disputes stretch back even further. In December 2017, joint employers Sugar Factory Ocean Drive LLC and Down and Dirty Tacos & Tequila Bar Ocean Drive LLC were named in a federal class-action Fair Labor Standards Act complaint alleging unpaid overtime for employees working up to 60 hours per week, according to ClassAction.org.
Part of a Wider National Retreat
Miami Beach's closure isn't an isolated event. Sugar Factory restaurants have also shut down in Indianapolis, Delray Beach, Detroit, Jacksonville, and Glendale, the Miami New Times notes. In Sugar Factory's Jacksonville location, state inspectors temporarily shut the restaurant down over 21 violations, including rodent activity, before it closed permanently in June. Its downtown Detroit outpost went dark in May.
In Delray Beach, Sugar Factory had opened at 307 E. Atlantic Ave in May 2024, replacing Lionfish Modern Coastal Cuisine, only to close in March 2025 citing plans to relocate — before the storefront was taken over by Italian restaurant Beach Club, according to Boca Raton Magazine. A similar pattern played out in Indianapolis, where the restaurant filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2020 owing $707,894 in unpaid lease debts to Circle Centre Mall; lender Crowd Out Capital acquired the store and briefly reopened it in May 2021 before it closed for good, per the Indianapolis Business Journal.
Sugar Factory was originally launched in June 2009 by Davidovici as a 500-square-foot confectionery shop inside The Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, according to Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery. The brand built its celebrity cachet on trademark Couture Pops — glittery, jewel-handled lollipops priced at $25 apiece with $15 refill packs — endorsed by stars including Kim Kardashian and Britney Spears, the outlet reported. Eleven years after its Miami debut, that glitzy formula has faded from South Florida entirely, leaving only the memories of red-carpet openings and the paper trail of lawsuits and bankruptcy filings behind it.
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