Wausau’s Sweets on 3rd reopens with new owners

Rich Palzewic

Staff

April 1, 2024

WAUSAU – In the mood for locally roasted coffee, truffles or chocolate-covered orange peels?

A trip to Sweets on 3rd in Wausau might be in order.

Reopening last October after being closed for a few months, the candy shop, located at 615 N. 3rd St., is under new ownership with Mia Husnick and her husband now at the helm.

“Being from the Wausau area, I’ve always known about the candy shop,” Husnick said. “We’re in an older historic building with brick walls and hardwood floors. I’d say it’s more of a traditional candy shop you used to see – it’s not one you’d think of in a tourist town.”

After the couple retired from their previous careers – and did some traveling afterward – Husnick said they knew it was time to do something different.

“It’s something we took over,” she said. “Sweets on 3rd has been here for a long time – I wish I knew the year it started. I know the first owners owned it for quite a long time. Then someone took it over for maybe five years. Then it was sold and the owners before me only owned it for eight months when they abruptly closed it.”

The story of how she and her husband came to own the candy store, Husnick said, dates back to when she used to work for the previous owners.

“I got to know the business a bit and what it was like,” she said. “After it closed, I thought about buying it. (Because we had retired early), I was looking for something extra to do – then we bought the business. Our first day was Oct. 3.”

Though new to the realm of small retail business ownership, Husnick, 57, said she didn’t go into entrepreneurship blind.

“I owned another business quite a few years ago, so I knew somewhat how a business was run,” she said. “Things have changed a lot in the last 20 years, though (when it comes to owning a business).”

Adjusting quickly to the learning curve, Husnick said since opening last October, “things are going well.”

“Because it was abruptly shut down for a few months, it’s surprising how many people noticed that and now realize, ‘oh, you’re open again?’” she said. “It’s taken people a while to realize that. We had a good Christmas holiday season… The warmer (winter) weather also helped because we sell hand-dipped ice cream.”

Husnick said hand-dipped ice cream in the Wausau area is “kind of a novelty.”

“As the weather warms even more, I think we are one of the only places in the Wausau area that has hand-dipped ice cream,” she said. “We sell a premium hand-scooped ice cream that’s good – we have a following for that… There are soft-serve (ice cream) places, but we have a niche there.”

Though, Husnick said the shop also tries to incorporate “some new and fun things” on occasion. 

Name recognition

Because Sweets on 3rd has been at the same location since its inception, Husnick said that helps with name recognition – and is part of the reason the couple stuck with the name when they reopened the shop. 

“The store has been here a long time, so there are things here people expect,” she said.

Offerings

In addition to the previously mentioned hand-dipped ice cream, Husnick said Sweets on 3rd offers truffles, locally roasted coffee, hand-dipped candy and much more.

“As for the truffles and hand-dipped candy, there’s not a whole lot of that in Wausau (either),” she said. “There are certain kinds and flavors people want.”

One such item Sweets on 3rd offers that helps it stand out amongst the crowd, Husnick said, is its chocolate-covered orange peels.

“I had really never heard of them before, but people know they can find those here – there’s a following of people who love those,” she said. “One time, when I was out of them and I was trying to order them, a gentleman came in and said, ‘you’re going to have them right? Because I’m coming back in for them.’ Sometimes those chocolate-covered orange peels are hard to get – like I said – so I’ve been making them myself because people want them.”

For the most part, Husnick said Sweets on 3rd doesn’t make the candies it sells – but that may change some in the future.

“I order some candies from a Wisconsin-based company outside of the area that is well-known for its candies,” she said. “I started hand-dipping some of our own recently. Eventually, when we have more time and employees, we’ll offer more things we make right at the shop. We are trying to come up with different ideas – you have to stay competitive.”

When describing Sweets on 3rd, Husnick said it is a mix of candy, ice cream, specialty items and coffee.

“It depends on the season,” she said. “We serve coffee, but I can’t say we have a full espresso bar. We get our coffee from a local roaster here, and it’s great coffee. It’s hard here because there are so many coffee shops around. It’s not like Sweets on 3rd (customers) are standing in line all day to get coffee. It’s an option when customers come in and get sweets.”

Though there have been a few different Sweets on 3rd owners in the last few years, the Husnicks said they don’t plan on making this a quick business opportunity.

“The plan is to run Sweets on 3rd for the near future,” she said. “I can’t say for sure if it’s going to be a couple of years, five years, etc. – I hope so. Because we are retired (from our previous careers), we want to keep it going. The eventual goal is to hire enough staff so we don’t have to be here as much as we are now – it’ll give us a little freedom with the business. You want the mission of your business to always stay yours, but it’s also not good, in my mind, to spend every waking hour here.”

For more information on Sweets on 3rd, visit sweetson3rd.com or find it on Facebook.