“The model of aesthetic vulgarity,” Theodor Adorno writes in Aesthetic Theory (1970) is a “child in [an] advertisement, taking a bite of chocolate with eyes half-closed, as if it were a sin.” If only he had lived to experience the cloying condescensions of Lil Sweet Treat, a gourmet gummy candy emporium where indulgence is offered not as temptation but as a reward for good behavior. Did I really “deserve” this treat, like the sealable plastic bag assured me I did in red squiggly letters? I hadn’t spent the day at my marketing job or taking a hot Pilates class. I am an unemployed writer. I didn’t make sense here.
Lil Sweet Treat is the entrepreneurial confection of Zillennial Willy Wonka Elly Ross. A computer scientist by training, she interned at Blackstone, Google, Apple, and Microsoft before pivoting from Big Tech to Lil Treat in 2024. Ross set up shop in a former vape store in the West Village a little over a year ago, broadcasting the grand opening on TikTok. Today, no less than seven Lil Sweet Treats are sprinkled across the Acela Corridor; four are in New York…
