SunRise Sweets owner Savannah Roman celebrates opening her new business SunRise Sweets in Chicopee during a ribbon cutting ceremony on June 5.
Photo credit: City of Chicopee – Mayor’s Office
CHICOPEE — SunRise Sweets officially opened its doors for business at 28 Center St., after a ribbon cutting ceremony on June 5.
Since then, SunRise Sweets owner Savannah Roman said business has been “absolutely incredible.”
She stated, “It is amazing to see how much the community comes out and supports. I love that our network of customers has grown drastically. Every time a past customer comes, they always bring someone new, so it really is a beautiful thing.”
SunRise Sweets offers specialty milkshakes, acai bowls, sorbet bowls, sundaes and smoothies.
The business is currently open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from noon to 8:30 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 10 p.m.
SunRise Sweets did a trial run of being open on Sunday, July 20. Roman said if customers prefer the shop to be open on Sundays, they will shift the off days to Monday and Tuesdays.
Roman explained that she initially had no plans to start a business.
“It was never my planned intention to start a business at all. I thought when I got out of high school, I was going to go to college to be a marketing manager,” Roman said.
Like many people, Roman grew up eating ice cream and said it was something her and her family — specifically her and her father — did very closely.
“Ice cream was to bond, to connect and to enjoy something together,” Roman said.
When Roman wasn’t working, she would make shakes at home and said she found joy in mixing multiple ingredients together to make something “different.”
She began to post her shakes on social media and started to gain an interest from a lot of people who recommended selling her shakes.
After saying no multiple times due to fear of it being too much work or not working out, Roman finally agreed to start after three people said it at the exact same time.
“I took that as my sign,” Roman said.
Roman served out of her house for around eight months, gaining a lot of popularity by scheduling visits every 15 minutes with a drive-thru setup.
She said she fell in love with the idea of making specialty shakes to sell to others and eventually coined the name, SunRise Sweets.
Besides offering specialty milkshakes, sorbet bowls, sundaes and smoothies, Roman focuses on mental health and serves reminders that everyone is loved, seen and worthy.
Each treat is handcrafted and paired with a handwritten affirmation to offer a small moment of reflection, encouragement or hope.
“There’s a lot of self-doubt,” Roman said, “You can be the most confident person in the world, you can be the most happiest person in the world, but self-doubt will never go away, so I want my affirmations and my words to speak to that side of a person. That’s who I deliver to when I write on the cups.”
Mayor John Vieau and other elected officials and community stakeholders were at the ribbon cutting event on June 5.
Roman discussed what it meant to have received that support from the city and state.
She said, “It was overwhelmingly incredible. So many new faces came out, so many officials came out. We had a lot, a lot of officials there to support and it was honestly so beautiful.”
SunRise Sweets is a family-owned business and Roman concluded, “It comes from the heart. We speak and we flow, and we create with intention and that’s what keep people coming back. We keep our customer service beyond the sale. We really speak and we’re here for the people to fill up all of our cups together. We’re all a team.”
Readers looking to check out the menu or more about the business can visit sunrisesweetsllc.com.
