Well, we’ve officially been supplying donuts to the Manhattan community for almost four months now, and we’ve been having a blast. From our early bird 5:30 am regulars to the lines down the sidewalk on Wildcat game days; from calm, relaxing Sunday evenings to energetic crowds and intense ping pong battles on Friday nights, it’s been a crazy ride. We’ve served up more than a few donuts and cups of coffee, had some nice chats over the handlebars of bicycles, and met some really cool folks, all while on our mission to prove that donuts make people happy.

Donuts coming out of our ears (or: Donuts on the brain)

By now, you’re probably familiar with our half-baked (or fully fried?) theory that donuts make people happy. As it turns out, maybe it’s not so crazy, after all. 

While we’re certainly firm supporters of healthy, active lifestyles, we’re also believers in enjoying everything in moderation. Because sometimes, there’s nothing better than sinking your sweet tooth into a fluffy donut oozing with frosting. You know you wanna.

Community clubhouse (no secret password required)

Probably our favorite part of the last four months, besides the spreading of good cheer through fat ‘n fluffy donuts, has been hosting so many different folks in our little shop. We’ve had birthday parties (complete with donut decorating activities for the kiddos), morning coffee groups, ping pong masters (and aspiring champions), musicians, and even a few celebrities hang out with us.

We used this extra-special clown-inspired donut as a lure…

…to get Modern Family‘s Eric Stonestreet to stop by.

Seems like the big communal table’s always got a lively discussion happening across it, or, you know, the K-State drum line practicing their game day pieces on it. Thank goodness they use their hands and not drumsticks… otherwise, we’d have had to refinish that table more than just once since we opened. From Christmas carolers to knitting clubs, and from early bird coffee drinkers to night owl studiers, there always seems to be an interesting crowd at this little donut shop.

A donut shop with a bicycle problem

If the bicycles in the windows and the spokes in our chandeliers haven’t given it away, maybe the collection of tandems and old Schwinn’s for rent has: we’re sort of cycle-crazy.  Thanks to the fantastic fall and unseasonably warm winter we’ve enjoyed thus far (knock on wood, somebody!), we’ve had the pleasure of sharing our vintage bikes with quite a few folks.  Whether it was a newly married couple riding away from their ceremony or a mom and daughter enjoying a warm Sunday afternoon, these old bikes are finally seeing some miles again.

Eager for a chance to meet some new friends over a set of handlebars, we organized an autumn bike ride on a day that, unfortunately, turned pretty blustery, so we don’t blame you for not joining us.  We’ll definitely have some fun, social rides this year, though, so keep an eye out for ‘em.  As we mentioned in an earlier post, Manhattan is quickly becoming an even more cycle-friendly community, and we should all celebrate that together.

Donut-shaped learning curve

Remember the old days, when we had to close the shop early because we ran out of donuts? Or when we only had one iPad cash register to face the Saturday morning game day crowd? How about when we started out with just ten employees and then more than doubled that in the first four days (often hiring staffers on the spot, in our exasperation)? Well, we sure do. And boy, have we learned a LOT since then...

We’re still learning, of course, and we owe you all a big “THANK YOU!” for sticking with us, offering kind encouragement and thoughtful advice, and eatin’ some donuts. The support Varsity’s seen from the community has been nothing short of overwhelming, and we sure do appreciate it.

So what’s next?

Donuts, of course! We just rolled out a few new varieties and retired some seasonal ones to make room in the case (don’t worry, the S’more will make a triumphant return later this year!). Check out the new pistachio donut, and tell us what you think.

Also, in the spirit of the donut’s savory cousin, the bagel, we’ve introduced the “Everything” donut, which is a kaleidoscope of crazy, colorful toppings loaned from our other donuts.  We’ll unveil more tasty new creations in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned (spoiler alert: pretzels + mixed nuts + caramel = heaven).

On the social calendar, we’re nearing the kickoff of our first (of many) Scrabble tournament.  For $3, you can flex your vocab muscles for a chance to win cash and prizes.  It’ll be an ongoing tourney throughout the month of February, where we set up the bracket and you make a Scrabble date with your partner at your convenience (within a given time frame, of course).  The deadline to sign up is Wednesday, January 25, and you can stop by the shop for more details.

We’ll also be setting up the ping pong table more often this year, playing some BINGO, and servin’ donuts late at night.  That’s right, you’ll soon be able to get your donut fix in the middle of the night. Get excited.

Keep watching our Facebook and Twitter for updates on all the crazy fun stunts we’re going to pull and all the crazy delicious donuts we’re going to sling. And, as always, please give us your suggestions for what you’d like to see or do at Varsity Donuts… we just want to make you happy.

Well, we tried to keep it kinda quiet, but somehow, the word got out that we opened at 5:30 this morning. True to our promise, we opened up in summer 2011 (on the last day of summer, but still…), and we couldn’t have asked for a better show of support from the Manhattan community. A big thanks to everyone that came down for a donut or two (or a dozen!).

There were even some crazy donut fans camped out on our sidewalk starting at midnight. What a great group of people!

When the doors finally opened at 5:30, the donuts starting disappearing off our shelves rather quickly…

Our donut resources were exhausted by 5 pm, and we closed our doors to start makin’ some more. We’ll eventually be open all day long, but we’ve still got some practicing to do! Thanks again to everyone for making our first day amazing, and we’ll have some more donuts ready to go bright and early at 5:30 am.

We’d like to take a brief break from talking about donuts (don’t worry, they’re still coming!) to let you in on something else we think makes people happy: bicycles.  Donuts and bikes, bikes and donuts.  They go hand in hand, right? We think so, at least, and that’s why Varsity Donuts patrons will also have the opportunity to rent vintage bicycles from us.

The bicycles that make up our rental fleet have seen a lot of miles over the years, so we’ve had to show them quite a bit of TLC to get ‘em ready to be enjoyed once again. Our buddies down at Big Poppi Bicycle Co. have been helping us out with that, in exchange for a few donuts.  Sometimes it’s a tough job to diagnose what ails these classic bikes… but the Big Poppi folks have done a great job. Thanks, guys!

We’re planning to offer a variety of bicycles to exercise off those donuts: men’s, women’s, and tandems. Each of our bikes will have a basket on the front, so you can take your donuts and coffee with you down to City Park for an impromptu picnic.  You can rent one for an hour, an afternoon, a whole day… we even recently rented out a tandem bike to a sweet couple that rode away on it after their wedding ceremony.  So cool.

These cool old bicycle license plates will add a little more character to each of our rentals. You’ll be able to ask for your favorite bike by name.

We’re so cycle-crazy, we’re even going to deliver hot & fresh donuts and coffee on this sweet delivery bike.  Can’t wait to “pedal” our donuts all over town.

Manhattan is making huge strides in becoming more of a bicycle-friendly community, and, as proud pedalers ourselves, we hope to support that in any way we can. One step in that direction is our goal to eventually get a few bike racks installed on the sidewalk near the shop. There was a whole fleet of bicycles parked out in front of Varsity for a private Bike Manhattan event last month, and it made us pretty happy.  You can read up on more of what the city’s doing for cyclists at http://www.ci.manhattan.ks.us/index.aspx?NID=1070. You can also check out the local bike shops we’re lucky enough to have around here, The Pathfinder and Big Poppi Bicycle Co.

Whether you want to ride your own bike down to the shop or borrow one of ours, we look forward to adding a little something to the Manhattan bicycle scene and to the community as a whole. Oh yeah, and we’re going to have donuts, too. More on that later…

Boy, who woulda thought it’d take so long to open a donut shop?! No worries, though, we’re still forging ahead in a cloud of flour and sawdust (not at the same time). Stay tuned… and we’ll get back to work.

Nope, it’s not a new haircut… it’s a new window!

Before…

In one of our earlier posts, we mentioned that there used to be this great stained glass window above the doors of our building; unfortunately, it was removed decades ago, and the void was boarded up. Once we found that out, we were itchin’ to shed a little more light on the subject. [cue the construction montage music]

Once we got all the old materials cleaned out of there, it was time for a new frame.

…After!

Not too shabby, huh? We’re getting closer, folks…

Hey, folks…

Things are heatin’ up around here, and we need some hard-working donut lovers to join in the fun!

Positions include:

- Donut inspector/social director/shop manager

[a Monday-Friday gig, this involves hosting our guests, training and managing staff, and organizing various community events in and out of the shop. This person knows Manhattan well, is organized, and is great at makin’ people happy]

- Donut smith/night owl

[evening/late night position for over-seeing donut production and nighttime staff; must be committed to making some seriously mouth-watering donuts]

- Donut staffers

[part-time donut slingers, Scrabble tournament referees, and bicycle enthusiasts; a ready smile at all times is a must]

For more information or to apply for any of these positions, shoot us an email at info@varsitydonuts.com.

While we didn’t have any donuts to hand out on National Donut Day (Friday, June 3), we did invite folks to come down and celebrate with us for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Thanks to everyone who stopped by — we had a great time!  There were piano solos, tandem bike rides, bubbles, ping pong battles… just about everything that we could’ve asked for on our new favorite day of the year… minus the donuts, of course! The first 100 donut fans to stop by received a ticket for a free donut when we do open our doors (which is going to happen soon, we promise!).  Meet Jason, our first lucky customer. Looks pretty excited, huh?

We really had to twist these guys’ arms to get them in off the hot sidewalk and play some ping pong! It was a pretty intense, professional-grade match… uh, see the ball bouncing on the floor next to the table? Maybe they need to stop by a little more often for some practice.

We decided Aggieville needed a little music, so we pushed our upright piano out onto the sidewalk.  Luckily, a pretty talented donut fan stopped by and tickled the ivories for a bit.  Everyone’s ears got a nice break from the “Chopsticks” we were rocking.

So, despite the overwhelmingly obvious lack of donuts, we consider our first National Donut Day a success!  We had some fun, met some cool folks, and got to talk about donuts for a couple of hours. Not a bad way to round out a week of hard work.