About eight years after closing the doors on Tremont's cult-favorite Lilly Handmade Chocolates, chefs Amanda and Joshua Montague are back in business — this time with candy bars that cost less than a latte. Their new shop, Candy Dish Confections, opened over the summer at 14234 Madison Ave. in Lakewood, and it's built around a simple idea: everyone should be able to afford a treat.
Candy Dish Confections is operated by the husband-and-wife team, who are classically trained chefs and met years ago in a restaurant kitchen, according to Cleveland Magazine. The couple launched Lilly Handmade Chocolates in Tremont in 2008 and ran it there for a decade, building a following for bite-size truffles that sold for around $35 a dozen when adjusted for inflation, per the same report. That history of precision and polish is still present at Candy Dish, but the Montagues have deliberately steered away from truffles this time around.
“We eliminated truffles,” Amanda Montague told Cleveland Magazine, aiming for something she described as more everybody-friendly. At Candy Dish, sweets are priced from $1 to $10 and up, a range Amanda said was intentional: “so anyone can buy something.” It's a notable pivot from the higher price point that defined Lilly's reputation, even as the Montagues' hands-on, handmade approach carries over.
From Flying Saucers to Housemade Buckeyes
The shop's lineup reads like a candy-counter fever dream, built around rotating confectionary bars filled with marshmallow, ganache, caramel and peanut butter, according to Candy Dish Confections' own site. Among the headline items are rainbow-hued Flying Saucers made with Belgian milk chocolate and colorful sprinkles, which the shop's website describes elsewhere as “delicious discs of chocolate studded with fruit, nuts, salt and spices.” There are also housemade buckeyes layered with peanut butter, white chocolate and Belgian milk chocolate, plus candied orange peel paired with dark chocolate.
The shop's OMG Bars come in several flavors, including a Peanut Butter Chew built from peanut butter nougat, honey-roasted peanut caramel, milk chocolate and dark chocolate, per Cleveland Magazine's reporting. A Strawberry Pretzel Salad OMG bar has also featured strawberry pâte de fruit, white chocolate, pretzels and vanilla marshmallow. For something more shareable, Candy Dish sells large candy bars made with real butter, imported dark chocolate and housemade nougat, alongside a Moon Rocks Star Cluster — praline pecans and salted cashews coated in dark chocolate and topped with mini vanilla bean marshmallows.
Weekly Marshmallows and a World Tour of Candy
True to its name, the shop treats marshmallows as a specialty rather than an afterthought. The site says staffers make soft and fluffy marshmallows weekly and “change the flavors often.” Amanda Montague has described what she calls “fairy dust” as the secret ingredient, according to Cleveland Magazine.
Beyond the in-house confections, Candy Dish stocks candy from purveyors around the world, including Tom Bumble Bars shipped in from Portland, plus sweets sourced from Chicago, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines, Copenhagen and Italy, the outlet reported. The shop's own website frames the mix succinctly: curated candies, handmade confections, soft caramels, vintage candy vessels and marshmallows, built around what it calls “time-honored techniques with a touch of the extraordinary.”
Vintage Dishes and Whatnot Livestreams
True to the shop's name, Candy Dish also sells vintage décor items — candy dishes, serving pieces and gift vessels that double as a nod to retro entertaining. Joshua Montague told Cleveland Magazine that the shop's colorful creations are meant to be “vessels for flavor,” a line that doubles as a description of the literal vintage dishware for sale alongside the candy.
Amanda Montague also runs weekly livestream auctions on Whatnot and NikNax, selling both vintage items and Candy Dish Confections products directly to shoppers online. “It’s more than just me selling,” she told the outlet. “It’s an experience.”
A Different Chapter After Lilly's Closure
The Montagues' path back to candy making wasn't a straight line. After Lilly Handmade Chocolates left Tremont, a later Lilly Chocolates and Confections location in Old Brooklyn — where the business had relocated about a year and a half earlier — closed in January 2020, according to Cleveland Scene. At the time, the Montagues said they were closing up shop after accepting what they called “fabulous career opportunities” at a company named Buoyant Brands Inc., the outlet reported.
Candy Dish Confections marks the couple's return to running their own storefront, this time built around accessibility rather than the higher-end positioning that defined Lilly. The shop had been in the works for months before its debut; cleveland.com first reported in January that the Lilly founders were planning a new sweet shop, and the outlet later confirmed the business opened at noon on Aug. 7 at the Madison Avenue address, combining the couple's handmade chocolates and candies with a curated selection of sweets from around the world.
