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New television series showcases Sugarland

Manager Keta Jade Haleszi serves gelato at Sugarland on Tuesday.  DTH/Erica O’Brien
Manager Keta Jade Haleszi serves gelato at Sugarland on Tuesday. DTH/Erica O’Brien

A business knows it’s doing well when the Food Network calls.

The network is headed to Sugarland on Franklin Street to enjoy some fresh gelato and frozen martinis in May.

The local cafe will be featured on a new show as one of the best places in America to eat dessert.

Co-owner Katrina Ryan said the network is working on a title but plans for it to be a spin off of the popular show “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” that instead focuses on desserts.

The Food Network called the cafe unexpectedly in February, Ryan said.

“My catering manager answered the phone and started dancing like she had to go to the bathroom,” she said. “Then she told me I had to take it.”

Ryan said the network will arrive at 7 a.m. May 10 to start setting up and to take photographs.

The cafe first opened its doors in February 2008.

“We’re excited because we’re such a young business,” she said. “We’ve worked really hard on our brand, and this seems to validate the good things people say about us.”

Sugarland isn’t the first local business to be featured on TV.

“PBS did a whole piece on Franklin Street, and they really focused on businesses in the West End,” said Meg McGurk, assistant director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership.

Other local businesses should be happy for Sugarland, said Mary Butler, owner of Chapel Hill homemade candy shop Carolina Confectionary Company.

“If the area gets recognized for the innovative and new things that we’re doing with food, it helps us all in some way,” she said.

McGurk said being featured on a show that repeats its episodes frequently could fuel business.

“Having national exposure on any kind of television show would certainly bring in visitors who haven’t been, or tourists who are looking for a good place to go,” she said.

That’s exactly what happened to a cupcake business in Charlotte.

The 2008 Food Network show “Down Home with the Neelys” featured SAS Cupcakes, a Delaware company with a location in Charlotte. The show highlighted the store’s red velvet cupcake.

Co-owner Tara Voigt said the experience helped with her store’s credibility.

“People still recognize us,” she said. “The show replays our segment a lot, and we have a lot of customers come in who say they saw us on the Food Network and order the red velvet cupcake.”



Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.

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