Business Beat: Roxy’s Candy Lounge opens in downtown Longview
Published 11:19 pm Friday, October 3, 2025
Downtown Longview is now a lot sweeter with the opening of Roxy’s Candy Lounge.
The store, which sells “candy for a cause,” is co-located with the Pink Candle, but it has its own entrance at 101 N. Center St.
On Friday, Roxy, the young girl for whom the store is named, helped hold the oversized scissors to cut the ribbon celebrating the store’s opening. Her father, Jackson Foltyn, stood near her, along with Lana Niemann. Niemann and Foltyn are working together on several downtown Gladewater projects. That’s where the original Roxy’s Candy Lounge is located.
Roxy is autistic, and 20% of the stores’ sales go to help open Roxy Rooms in schools. A Roxy Room is a specially designed room where students on the autism scale can go when they need to decompress.
Niemann said four Roxy Rooms are already open in Spring Hill ISD, two in Sabine ISD and one in Richardson ISD. Nineteen other schools have applied for Roxy Rooms as well. Each room costs about $7,000 to $12,000 to complete and is funded entirely by donations.
Neimann said Roxy’s Candy Lounge makes most of the sweets it offers at its kitchen at the Gladewater store, including Bourbon Salted Caramels, Chocolate Walnut Fudge and Caramel Apple Fudge; strawberries dipped in dark chocolate, milk chocolate or white chocolate; and a variety of other sweets. Some of their sweets are made by a chocolatier in New York, and sometimes the store purchases items from the Sweet Shop in Mount Pleasant.
Foltyn said the store and Roxy Rooms have connected with other parents and grandparents with children who have autism, and they’re raising awareness about autism.
“On top of that, the candy is superb. I think our candy will speak for itself,” Foltyn said.
Roxy’s Candy Lounge is open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday. Taylor Kelly operates the Longview store.
The Plain Bar plans first location
DeMarkus King’s plans to open a bar and lounge in the Longview Mall don’t stop there.
DeMarkus King
The city’s Planning and Zoning Commission has approved the specific use permit necessary for a “neighborhood pub/tavern/wine bar” to locate in a general retail zoning district. The request must now be considered by the City Council.
King also is applying for the necessary permit from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
Pending those approvals, King said he hopes to open The Plain Bar in the mall next spring or early summer.
He said he has plans to expand his business concept for a bar and lounge, with televisions and snacks, to other malls.
“I think that will be a different change of pace … with opening bars in retail malls. It changes the traditional mall setting,” he said and will help bring more people into the mail.
McDonald’s update
Construction is expected to begin in January on a new McDonald’s in the Spring Hill area of Longview.
A filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation says the restaurant at the southeast corner of Spring Hill and Gilmer roads will be 3,694 square feet. The $1.5-million construction project is expected to be completed by the end of May.
— 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.