Pushing through the front doors of The Holy Donut, I was greeted by the downright heavenly smell of fresh-brewed coffee and sweet icing.
It was a rainy August morning in Maine, but that hadn’t stopped over a dozen customers from shaking off their umbrellas and stumbling through the doughnut shop’s doors to get their hands on one of its famous donuts.
The Holy Donut opened in 2012 and has since grown into a Maine institution, with five locations across the state. It makes about 1.7 to 1.9 million doughnuts each year doughnuts each year, according to its co-owner and CEO.
Making it as a small business isn’t easy, but this doughnut shop in Maine may have found the recipe for success. The Holy Donut has been featured on television shows like “Man vs. Food” and gained a reputation for its unique potato doughnuts.
I visited the doughnut shop‘s Park Avenue location in Portland, the company’s first shop, to see how its famous doughnuts are made.
“We could not be more fortunate, again, for the way this community has come around and kept this brand and run with it,” The Holy Donut’s co-owner and CEO, Jeff Buckwalter, told Business Insider. “When their friends, relatives, and family are vacationing here, we’re one of the top two or three things to do in Maine.”
Here’s a look inside the operations of The Holy Donut and its plans for expansion.
