By Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
Starting at 5 a.m. Tuesday-Sunday, customers crowd into a small shop along University Boulevard North to select from up to 18 varieties of fresh doughnuts.
Other than coffee, milk, juices and soft drinks, that’s all the store sells. Just doughnuts.
“That’s it. That’s everything,” said owner David Unkelbach.
The Donut Shoppe knows its niche and has filled it since 1962.
The baker of the evening arrives around 9 p.m. and works all night to make 250 to 350 dozen yeast-raised and cake doughnuts, including apple fritters and éclairs.
Other employees arrive at their appointed times to sugarcoat or otherwise finish the confections, make coffee and stock the display case, which holds 80 dozen donuts.
Its busiest time is 7-9 a.m. weekdays and until 11 a.m. on the weekends. Much of the inventory is gobbled up by 10:30-11 a.m., although the store keeps the No. 1 seller, glazed doughnuts, stocked longer.
Payment is in cash. No checks, credit or debit cards. It’s easier that way, considering the average purchase is $7-$9, which is a dozen doughnuts and maybe an extra treat for the courier to enjoy while delivering the goods to the office, meeting, party or home.
At 1 p.m., the crew locks up, cleans up and is out by 2 p.m. Then the process repeats.
Unkelbach has seven employees, with five full-time and two part-time workers.
“Friday is just crazy,” said Unkelbach, who staffs up more that day. Friday seems to be the day more people take doughnuts to work.
Unkelbach has owned The Donut Shoppe for 10 years, but his association is lengthier. He and a friend worked at The Donut Shoppe in its former location nearby as teenagers. Unkelbach, 60, began making doughnuts at the age of 14, and his friend was two years older.
As they pursued other jobs, they kept circling back to the shop. The friend retired from the Merchant Marine and bought the business in 1978. Unkelbach worked there part-time as he maintained a full-time job for 27 years, working as an estimator for an electrical company. The friend sold it to Unkelbach in 2001.
“The first week I was in here, I had more satisfaction than I had in 27 years,” he said. “It’s great to make something and watch it being sold. You make something they want. It’s pretty satisfying.”
Unkelbach grew up in Arlington and attended Arlington Heights Elementary School and Terry Parker High School. He said he wasn’t one of those people who knew at an early age exactly what he wanted to do in life, although it turned out he was learning it hands-on.
The shop originally was next to another convenience store nearby but moved next to the Gate store about 20 years ago, he said. Some customers don’t realize the move, considering the shop remains next to a convenience store. It is six blocks north of Arlington Road.
The shop attracts its regulars, including 25-30 standing orders from churches on Sunday.
Unkelbach, happy that a Florida Times-Union reader survey declared The Donut Shoppe the best in town, said he’s changed a few recipes. He adds fresh blueberries to the Blueberry Cake doughnuts and chocolate chips to the Devil’s Food doughnuts.
He’s added pumpkin doughnuts in the fall. He also plans to start making lemon custard-filled doughnuts as well as cinnamon-coated confections with apple filling.
He doesn’t mind the commercial chain competition. “They keep me in business,” he said. “I hear complaints.”
Unkelbach’s wife, Mary Kay, is a retired teacher and high-school counselor who works part-time in the Baker County school system. Their son, Dane, a University of North Florida student, works at the shop part-time. The three are the officers in their corporation.
Unkelbach eats doughnuts because he needs to taste-test. But they’re not his favorite sweets.
That would be Key lime pie.
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