Allie's Donuts | |
---|---|
Restaurant information | |
Established | June 1, 1968 |
Food type | Doughnuts, crullers, cinnamon rolls, and coffee |
Street address | 3661 Quaker Lane |
City | North Kingstown |
State | Rhode Island |
Postal/ZIP Code | 02852 |
Country | United States |
Coordinates | 41°35′54″N71°29′48.5″W / 41.59833°N 71.496806°W |
Website | Official Facebook page |
Allie's Donuts is a doughnut shop in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, United States. Established in 1968 by Frederick Alvin "Allie" Briggs, the store has been listed as one of the best doughnut shops in the country by Saveur in 2008 [1] and by Thrillist in 2016. [2] Considered a landmark in Rhode Island, Allie's Donuts is also popular amongst residents from nearby states, receiving many customers travelling from Connecticut and Massachusetts to visit the store. [3]
On June 1, 1968, Frederick Alvin "Allie" Briggs opened Allie's Hand-Cut Do-nut Shop in a former sub sandwich shop along Route 2 with about $40 on hand and a $7,000 debt. A dairy farmer from Point Judith, Briggs had earned 10 years of experience in making and selling doughnuts while working at a shop in Wakefield. [4] On the opening day of the store, Briggs made a total of $38, selling nearly 100 dozen doughnuts at ¢39 each. [3]
In 1969, Briggs' son Ricky was killed by a drunk driver while delivering doughnuts for the business alongside his cousin. Devastated by the incident, Briggs nearly shut down his business. However, with support from his family and friends, he was encouraged to keep the shop open. [5]
Adjacent to the doughnut shop, Briggs opened Allie's Tack Shop in 1978, which is still operating as Allie's Feed, Farm & Pet as of 2023. [6]
By the 80s, Allie's Donuts was selling up to 800 dozen doughnuts a day. In 1986, the business was handed down to Briggs' eldest daughter, Anne Briggs Drescher, and her husband. Walter "Bud" Drescher. [4] Two years later in December 1988, the American hospitality company Marriott Corporation threatened a lawsuit against the Dreschers for attempting to trademark "Allie's Donuts" in order to prepare for opening their business to franchising. The Marriott Corporation had previously applied a trademark for "Allie's" and similar names, as the company had established a brand of restaurants named for the co-founder Alice Marriott within their hotels under the name. No further legal action proceeded only one franchised Allie's Donuts location opened, operating for just 5 months in 1992 in Middletown.
Multiple times between 2002 and 2012, the Dreschers put Allie's Donuts up for sale as they declared that they were ready to retire. In 2014 through their Facebook page, they reassured that Allie's Donuts would continue to be a family-run business. [3] Ownership of the business was eventually passed down to their son Matt Drescher, who put the business through controversy in 2020 after discontinuing the police and military discount during the George Floyd protests in June. Later in August, the company backed down on these changes, and instead began offering free half-dozens for customers to give to the local police departments, and handing out free T-shirts to customers who photographed themselves alongside the recipient officers. [7] Matt Drescher announced that he would be stepping down from his chief operating officer position at Allie's Donuts in late 2021 while retaining a small ownership stake. [8]
Elements of how the business is operated to the current day are carried over from the early years of the business; the store only accepts cash payments, and its opening hours remain based on Briggs' schedule as a Babe Ruth League baseball coach. [3]
On the standard menu, Allie's Donuts currently offers 32 different donuts, two crullers, and a cinnamon roll, as well as multiple iced and hot beverages. A specialty item sold by the business is a "donut cake", a 10-inch doughnut offered in various designs decorated with frosting and sprinkles resemblant of a traditional birthday cake. The inspiration for selling it came from when Briggs' young son, Mike, out of boredom, traced along a dinner plate into freshly-made dough to create an unusually large doughnut. Skeptical, Briggs inserted the dough into a fryer, but its frying was successful, and the store eventually began topping the large donuts with frosting and sprinkles like a typical sprinkled-doughnut and selling them to customers at their request. Currently, Allie's Donuts has limited its production of donut cakes to 80 per day, and they are often ordered ahead of time for special occasions and events. [9]
In 2015, Narragansett Beer collaborated with Allie's Donuts to introduce a double chocolate doughnut-flavored porter. It was sold throughout most of the East Coast. [10]
A doughnut or donut is a type of pastry made from leavened fried dough. It is popular in many countries and is prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and franchised specialty vendors. Doughnut is the traditional spelling, while donut is the simplified version; the terms are used interchangeably.
Krispy Kreme, Inc. is an American multinational doughnut company and coffeehouse chain.
Sprinkles are small pieces of confectionery used as an often colourful decoration or to add texture to desserts such as brownies, cupcakes, doughnuts or ice cream. The tiny candies are produced in a variety of colors and are generally used as a topping or a decorative element. The Dictionary of American Regional English defines them as "tiny balls or rod-shaped bits of candy used as a topping for ice-cream, cakes and other."
Entenmann's is an American company that manufactures baked goods and delivers them throughout the United States to supermarkets and other retailers for public sales. Often, they are known to have display cases at the end of store aisles. The company offers dessert, cup, loaf, and crumb cakes, and donuts, cookies, pies, cereal bars, muffins, Danish pastries, and among other baked goods, buns. In the past several years, they have added designer coffee flavors along with scented candles to their product line in an effort to broaden its appeal.
Mister Donut is an international chain of doughnut stores. It was founded in the United States in 1956 by Harry Winokur. Primary offerings include doughnuts, coffee, muffins and pastries. After being acquired by Allied Domecq in 1990, most of the North American stores became Dunkin' Donuts. Outside of the United States, Mister Donut maintains a presence in Japan, El Salvador, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Singapore.
Shipley Do-Nuts is an American doughnut company and coffeehouse chain with more than 300 franchised stores in the Southern United States, including Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, and as of 2018, Colorado. Its headquarters are located in Northside, Houston, Texas.
Honey Dew Associates, Inc., doing business as Honey Dew Donuts, is a privately owned and operated Massachusetts-based coffeehouse chain selling donuts and other breakfast foods that operates in New England. The chain is mostly known for its donuts and coffee, but also offers sandwiches, bagels, muffins, and various types of pastries. Honey Dew Donuts opened its first restaurant in 1973 in Mansfield, Massachusetts, and is currently headquartered in Plainville, Massachusetts. As of August 20, 2021 the chain had 125 restaurants in 3 states.
This is a page on the global operations of Krispy Kreme.
Potato doughnuts, sometimes called a Spudnut, are a type of doughnut, typically sweet, made with either mashed potatoes or potato starch instead of flour, the most common ingredient used for doughnut dough. Potato doughnuts tend to be lighter than all-flour doughnuts, and are prepared in a similar way as other doughnuts. A chain of Spudnut Shops was established across the United States in the 1930s before declining to a few dozen more recently. Fried ube dough is also eaten in East Asia, including the world's most expensive doughnut, the Golden Cristal Ube, which cost $100 each. Much like flour doughnuts, potato doughnuts are often eaten with coffee.
Daylight Donut Flour Company, LLC, doing business as Daylight Donuts, is a privately owned and operated American chain of doughnut shops, founded in 1954 and headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The chain has approximately 950 locations in 13 countries. Each Daylight Donuts store is independently owned and operated.
Duck Donuts is an American doughnut shop chain based in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Duck Donuts was founded in 2006 in Duck, North Carolina, by Russ DiGilio and Robin Griffith, and has since expanded to over 100 locations in the United States. The chain's products include customizable, made-to-order doughnuts, other baked goods, and a range of beverages.
A doughnut sandwich is a combination of a doughnut and a sandwich, typically constructed using a glazed, deep-fried flour doughnut and split in the middle like a bagel. Various types of foods, such as cheese, bacon, peanut butter and more, are usually added between the slices creating a sandwich. There are different types of doughnut sandwiches, some made with cake doughnuts
NOLA Doughnuts was a doughnut shop with three locations in the Portland metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of Oregon. The original shop opened in Lake Oswego in 2015, and a second opened in northwest Portland's Pearl District in 2018. A third location opened in Beaverton in 2022. All locations closed in January 2023.
Cardigan Donuts is an American doughnut shop and coffeehouse located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Co-founders Justin Bedford and Jeff Bull opened the brand's flagship store in May 2017, located inside of the Minneapolis City Center shopping mall. The restaurant, known for selling comfort food, offers daily made doughnuts, yogurt bowls, hot and iced beverages, and kombucha. It caters, mainly, to the business clientele and users of the Minneapolis Skyway System. A second location, with an ice cream bar, opened in June 2022, on the second floor of the IDS Center in Minneapolis.
Daily Dozen Doughnut Company is a doughnut shop at Seattle's Pike Place Market, in the U.S. state of Washington. Established by two sisters in 1978, the stall in the Economy Market features a "Donut Robot", and is widely known for its hot, freshly made bite-sized doughnuts that are served in a paper bag. The business has been operated by Barbara Elza since c. 1989. Daily Dozen has garnered a generally positive reception and has been favorably included in several overviews of Seattle's best doughnuts.
Dough Joy is a small chain of doughnut shops in Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington. The queer-owned business, which specializes in vegan doughnuts, was established by Christopher Ballard and Sean Willis. Dough Joy initially operated from a food truck in the Ballard neighborhood, and later expanded to brick and mortar shops on Capitol Hill and in the West Seattle neighborhood. In 2024, Dough Joy announced plans to open a third shop in Ballard. The business has garnered a positive reception.
Donut Factory is a small chain of doughnut shops in the Seattle metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of Washington. The original shop operates in Lynnwood, and an outpost opened in Seattle's University District in 2021.
Doe Donuts is a vegan doughnut shop in Portland, Oregon.
HeyDay is a doughnut shop in Portland, Oregon. Lisa Nguyen started the business as a pop-up restaurant in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, before moving to the food cart pod Collective Oregon Eateries in southeast Portland's Lents neighborhood in 2023. Specializing in mochi donuts, HeyDay has garnered a positive reception.