Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/61759
photography by leila navidi desert patrol products to expand his candy business. Horowitz plans to roll out new InsIght Best advice: My dad's words: "Don't be a schmuck. You don't want to be the one making the candy, you want to be the one selling the candy." Candy break: I got lucky and stumbled upon a top mold manufacturer right here in Las Vegas. He made all the molds for all the pastry chefs on the Strip. the airport before leaving town.) Now celebrating seven years in business, the one-time caterer who started off making the pops by hand in a rented kitchen will oversee a spring/summer shipment of 900,000 suckers, a number so high he seems uncomfortable even talking about it. A native of Long Island, NY who started cooking at summer camps in his teens, Horowitz graduated from UNLV's prestigious hospitality industry school before managing at Strip restaurants, includ- ing The Palm and Spago. After two years with Wolfgang Puck, he started his own catering business, and even built a food and beverage program at what is now the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa. Later, he started a side business in a rented catering facility hand-making the now-ubiquitous candy pops in the shape of dice. Flavors include Lucky Lemon and Grape of Spades, although his most sought-after pop is red (the standard color of real casino dice) and called Cherry Cherry Cherry after a high slots payoff. At first, Horowitz developed his own flavors and colors and made the pops in small batches. "But once they hit the market, I saw that they had a mind of their own," he says. "People would sweet success WITH FOOD NETWORK AND LIL WAYNE AMONG THE FANS OF HIS DICE-SHAPED LOLLIPOPS, KENNY HOROWITZ'S NEWLY EXPANDED COMPANY, SIN CITY SUCKERS, WAS DESTINED TO HIT IT BIG. by broCK radKe C asino dice inspired Kenny Horowitz's success, but unlike many people who arrive in town, he didn't rely on luck to make it in Vegas. "You have to be unafraid to make that next move," he says. Maybe it's easier to roll the dice when they're yours—and made of candy. Horowitz is the man behind Sin City Suckers, the dice-shaped lollipops found at checkout counters citywide. (Tourists buy them by the handful at 62 vegasmagazine.Com bring one home to their friends just to stick it in the mug on their desk. It started growing into bachelorette par- ties, corporate events, mom-and-pop candy shops across the country, even bunko games in small towns where people have never even been to Vegas." To stay ahead of demand, Horowitz had to go all in. While at a candy expo in Chicago, he decided to take the big leap into mass production. "My dad taught me that you have to spend money to make money," he says. Now he's taking the next step in this confectionary evo- lution by developing complementary products continue the expansion of his business. Horowitz's sweet success has garnered him a few brushes with fame. Sin City Suckers has been featured on Food Network's candy-themed show Unwrapped, and in 2008, Horowitz found an unlikely ally: Lil Wayne. The video for the rapper's huge hit "Lollipop," filmed in Vegas, included the dice pops in several opening shots. "The image of Lil Wayne with my suckers, wearing all his bling in Vegas was pretty cool," Horowitz says. "I started getting calls from all over—old-school vinyl record stores in the South and deep in the heart of New York City. They all wanted the suckers." V to