Dulces Clara is a new store in downtown Elgin that sells Mexican candy that’s sweet, tart and spicy. In a way, those flavors also reflect owners Clara and Arturo Godinez’s journey to their new location.
Their business opened 25 years ago at the original Elgin Mall on South McLean Boulevard. It operated there until the mall closed in 2023 and then relocated to the Spring Hill Mall in West Dundee/Carpentersville.
“It seemed like a good opportunity,” Clara said.
What they didn’t anticipate is that despite their signed lease, they’d be looking for another location only eight months later when the mall closed in March 2024.
One of their sons helped them secure a new spot at the Chicago Premium Outlet Mall in Aurora in 2023, which found success.
“There’s a saying in Mexico, ‘One door closes, a bigger one opens,’” Arturo said. “We never dreamed about having a location there.”
Despite branching out to Aurora, the couple wanted to return to their Elgin roots and opened a second shop on South Street last year. But the business struggled, in part because of the immigrant raids conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that kept many customers from leaving their homes, Clara said.
“There were just losses there. We lost a lot of candy. We had to throw a lot of candy away,” she said.
Instead of throwing in the towel when their lease ended, they decided to look for a new place. They found one storefront downtown they liked, they said, but the deal fell through.
Then Arturo spotted a location at 18 Douglas Ave. that he thought could work.
“I drove around the block and saw the for rent sign here,” he said. “And here we are.”
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They’ll hold their grand opening at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 4. “There’ll be some surprises,” Arturo said of the celebration.
Arturo and Clara, parents to three sons and a daughter, say they and their family love the new shop. There’s more foot traffic downtown, Arturo noted.
During their years as small business owners, “we have hit rock bottom at times,” Clara said. Their religious faith helped pull them through, she said.
“(My husband) always says, ‘You’ll see, it can be done. You’ll see, it’ll be fine,’” she said.
Their children have helped with social media, and their daughter, a business major at DePaul University in Chicago, has been instrumental in putting what she’s learned to practical use for them.
Dulces Clara’s colorful inventory of Mexican candy features a variety of unique creations, like the popular Hormigas, a hard caramel candy with a watermelon flavor and a dusting of spicy chili powder, and gummies that mix the sweetness of mango with the tartness of tamarind.
There are also traditional candies, like De la Rosa mazapan, a powdery, crumbly, and sweet peanut butter candy, and new ones, like Pelon Pelo Rico, a tamarind concoction packaged in a bottle that allows it to be squeezed so that it mixes with chili and lime as it comes out.
Arturo said the candy is often handmade and flavors vary depending on the region in Mexico where it’s produced. The flavor and texture are different, he said, and about 80% is spicy.
Customers who’ve never tried it can get a taste test before they buy, Clara said. But many are already familiar, having purchased candy from them as kids and now bringing in their own children to try it, Arturo said.
One man who came in to the new store with his wife became emotionally overwhelmed when he saw one of his childhood favorites, they said. The man told them that when he was a child in Mexico, there wasn’t money to buy candy so he was go to the train station to pick up discarded containers and eat the remnants still inside.
“I don’t think there’s anything that compares to it,” Arturo said of Mexican candy.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.