Sanders Confectionery, Images of America

For more than 130 years, there has been no sweeter word in Detroit than Sanders.

Sanders was more than just an ice-cream and candy shop - a Detroit icon, it served a fountain of memories for generations. The venerable confectioner was once as much a part of Detroit's streetscape as the Big Three, Hudson's, and Coney Islands, where customers stood two and three deep behind lunch counters for tuna or egg salad sandwiches, devil's food buttercream "bumpy" cake, hot fudge sundaes, and Sanders' signature dessert - hot fudge cream puffs. As Detroit boomed, so did Sanders, and at its peak, the company boasted more than 50 stores, with its products available in as many as 200 supermarkets. The Motor City nearly lost Sanders in the mid-1980s, but its dessert shops have begun to resurface, thanks to another Detroit institution, Morley Brands LLC, which bought the Sanders brand in 2002. Even after more than a century has passed when Fred Sanders opened his first shop in Chicago, Sanders Confectionery has opportunity to become a national player in desserts and candy.