If you go:
La Dona Donuts
4567 Bee Ridge Road. Sarasota
By now many people in the area have had the chance to enjoy a delicious La Dona Donuts doughnut either through having them delivered or by rushing Perq coffee just in time to get that last Triple Chocolate Nova. The cakey goodness of Chelsea Elliott’s gourmet doughnuts have been a hit in the area over the last 10 months since she started her business. But for Elliot there was still something missing. She wanted a storefront. Starting tomorrow that dream will become a reality.
She had said in an earlier interview that she had hoped to open a store on National Doughnut Day in June. As she looks back now on that time frame she laughs about how insane the process would have been. Even now, the process has been pretty crazy.
Chelsea Elliott, owner and chef for La Dona Donuts, has only be in business for 10 months and will be opening the doors to her store on Wednesday. Photo by Rachel S. O’Hara
Elliott and her crew – made up mostly of family members and some new friends – have worked for a little over two months to turn a storefront in a plaza on Bee Ridge Road into La Dona Donuts’ new home.
Elliott let unravel have a sneak peak inside the new digs before her soft opening this Wednesday.
“We were on a super tight budget,” Elliott says as she sits at the pink picnic table inside the front of her store. Elliott and her crew salvaged marble from the former proprietor to make the counters, visited MSS Liquidators for tables and restaurant equipment for the kitchen and scoured Craigslist looking for pieces and parts to bring the whole store together. She also gained a variety of supplies and guidance from another small business owner, the owners of Antoine’s, Oliver and Angela Georges.
“They have been my mentors through all of this.”
The Georges’ helped Elliott not only get a hold of furniture and kitchen appliances but they also assisted her along the way with licensing and all the paperwork that has to be done to be up to code.
Elliott had help getting the place together from her sister Shylah Rowe, her boyfriend Juan Chavez, Jr. and his father Juan Chavez, Sr. as well as her step-dad Brian Smith. When it came to the painting of her logo and other decorative work she found local artist Matt Pecson.
The updated La Dona Donuts logo, created by Brittney Reilly, was painted on the wall behind the counter by Matt Pecson. Photo by Rachel S. O’Hara
The two meet through Instagram, liking one another’s photos, and soon Pecson was addicted to Elliott’s doughnuts and offering to paint her a painting for when she opened a store. Elliott loved the idea and told him to go for it and that she would pay him. He showed up with a picture of Homer Simpson eating a doughnut. However, when she tried to pay him the only payment he would take was doughnuts. His favorites are butter pecan and any of the ones she makes with coconut.
“He was a vegetarian but he likes the maple bacon ones too.”
The painting Matt Pecson made for Chelsea Elliott for her new store. Photo by Rachel S. O’Hara
Pecson is scheduled to still do a few more paintings on her walls at the new store.
There are plenty more things Elliott hopes to add once the store has been up and running for awhile – yeast doughnuts, gluten free doughnuts and possibly staying open at night a few days a week. But for now Elliott is just waiting to see her first customers come through the door.
“People have been looking in for weeks and driving by asking if we are open. It hasn’t really hit me yet. I think once things start to flow I’ll be like, ‘Yeah I did it'”.
The grand opening for La Dona Donuts will take place Saturday, October 3, but you can go try out the doughnut and coffee combo of the month – a pumpkin spice cake doughnut with a cream cheese glaze and pumpkin creme brulee coffee – starting at 7 a.m. on Wednesday.
