Allie's Sweet Tooth coming to downtown Sharon

Feb. 21—SHARON — Allie Adams began her journey as a small business owner as a single mom creating sweet treats for her children's birthday parties.

Now she ships sweets across the country and provides for major league sports leadership.

Adams owns Allie's Sweet Tooth at 220 W. Venango St., Mercer, and will soon open another location in the former Army Navy store in downtown Sharon.

When Adams, a Cleveland native, started baking, it wasn't to start up a sweet shop or create a bakery, it was to provide her own children with special treats on their birthday.

As a single parent back in 2007, cakes were not in the budget, so she opted to create some cute cookie treats for them. Fast forward 17 years later, she is shipping her product all over the country and is getting ready to expand her brick-and-mortar footprint by close to 600% with the expansion into a signature downtown building.

Adams plans to open in the former Army Navy building at 47 E. State St., by spring with a full bakery, including bread and gluten-free items, as well as a breakfast eatery.

"We plan to have seating as well as a grab-and-go counter," Adams said.

Adams, a Mercer resident, is known for her custom-decorated cookies, macarons, cinnamon rolls and jumbo gourmet cookies, among other confections.

The building is owned by Mike Lisac, owner of Warehouse Sales in Sharon, who purchased it in 2015. He acknowledged that he had been looking for the right business to step into the iconic Sharon location.

"Though I've had some interest recently in the building, I made the decision to work with Allie's Sweet Tooth because Allie and her family understand the significance of the building to the city's downtown, its history and its location next to the riverfront," said Lisac, a longtime commercial building owner and landlord in Sharon, referencing the space where the former Huntington Bank building was taken down last year. "Their plan for expansion has the potential to encompass the entire building plus provide additional events for the downtown."

The building has a long-storied history in Sharon, according to the Sharon Historical Society. As early as the 1860s it was a former hotel, then a grocery store and confectionary shop, among other iterations. In the early 1930s, it became a G.C. Murphy Co., which it remained until its closure in 1978. A year later, it reopened as an Army-Navy store through 2015, when it was purchased by Lisac upon that store's closure.

Allie's Sweet Tooth has also gone through its own changes, starting in 2007 in owner Adams' kitchen.

"It started growing organically, just friends and family ordering things, but I never thought it could be a business," Adams said.

She credits her mother, Connie Zajaros and grandmother Helga Clark for getting her started with baking and icing decorating. But it was her father who pushed her to take it commercially in 2008.

"I was working three jobs to support my daughters and my dad kept telling me I could do this as a business and have more time with my girls," Adams said. "I said, 'absolutely not' because I just didn't believe it would support us, but he believed it and launched a website with an online order form. Because of his belief in me, I had people contacting me to start baking for their events. After three months I was able to quit all my jobs and just focus on the baking business."

Adams began shipping nationwide right from the start with clients including every major league baseball team, every owner in the NFL and NASCAR.

Her sweets were also chosen as the official Kentucky Derby cookie in 2009 and 2017.

"I was at a drive-in movie with my two older daughters and a friend when I found out I got an order from Gene Simmons of Kiss and I remember running around my car screaming," Adams said.

Other celebrity orders include Brad Paisley and the owner of the Chicago Bulls.

"I'm also on call for Lexus corporate offices for their celebrity clients," Adams said.

Besides a full bakery and eatery, she eventually plans to do more corporate business as well as culinary events in Sharon, with the support of her staff and her family.

"We are truly a family business and family comes first. That is the core of everything we do," Adams said.

She said her older daughters, Kailyn and Brynn know how to run the store and her younger daughters, Addison and Madelyn each have started their own concept within the business including packaged sprinkles and designer kids' aprons, both available for retail sale.

"I involve them in everything," Adams said. "They even learned their colors by naming icing bags while in the highchair."

Her husband Chris, who is employed by Premier Hydraulics in Farrell, and her mother, Connie Zajaros, also provide support, whether it is baking or delivering, setting up at local markets or jumping in to help with day-to-day operations.

"They supported me when I first opened in 2017 in Grove City, then later opened a space in Mercer in 2021," Adams said, adding that the Mercer store will remain open. The Grove City shop, though very successful, was closed in 2020 which they managed a family health issue.

The new expansion, while exciting, since it's the biggest one she has ever done, is also a little bittersweet.

"My father passed in August and until this decision, I used to run everything past him," Adams said. "He always said I was thinking too small, and I never fully understood that at the time. But when I walked into that space, everything came into alignment. I'm excited about going to Sharon and being a part of all that's happening there. We're being welcomed in such a warm way."