Black Mountain Doughnut Factory makes mornings a little sweeter

Most days have started out the same for Shane Davis since he opened the Black Mountain Doughnut Factory on West State Street with his wife Beckie on May 15.

He arrives at 4 a.m. and starts making maple bacon, key lime, chocolate, caramel and other varieties of doughnuts before his son Evan shows up to join him. Beckie arrives in time to serve customers when the begin arriving at 7 a.m., Tuesday - Friday and 9 a.m. on Saturday. Daughter Kiley joins her family after school during the week, and all day on the weekend. 

The shop remains open, "until we run out," reads the sign on the door. The popularity of the doughnuts makes closing time hard to predict.

"We've had days where we ran out by 10:15 a.m.," Shane said seated around a table with his family inside Black Mountain Doughnut Factory on May 30. "We've been selling 80-100 dozen before lunch just about every day."

The work is exhausting, but the Davis family had a feeling that doughnuts would be in high demand when they decided to start their own business, an idea Kiley thought would be fun a couple of years ago. 

"We started really thinking about it three months ago," Shane said. "We all grew up here, so we knew from our interactions with people in the community that fresh doughnuts would be something people would support."

Shane reached out to Charles Martinez, who owned Traditions Bakery, which closed in 2018. 

"He makes great doughnuts, so I asked him if he would teach me how to make it," Shane said. "He said 'sure,' we bought his recipe and here we are."

The first-time business owners had two goals — keep it simple and utilize local businesses whenever possible. 

"We had our logo created by Precision Graphics in town, we had shirts made at Sunset Farm Designs and we decorated the space with old family photos," Shane said. "We wanted it to have a hometown feel."

In the spirit of keeping it simple, the shop only offers doughnuts. 

"We've had a lot of people ask us if we're going to do any cookies or baked goods," Shane said. "I tell them 'no, we're going to stick with doughnuts.'"

Black Mountain Doughnut Factory offers a rotating assortment of flavors, and all of the glazes are made by the Davis family. 

"All of the doughnuts are hand-made," Beckie said. "We don't use any machinery, Shane and Evan are back there rolling them out and cutting them."

The approach must be working, she continued, because the demand for the product has been high since they opened. 

"One day we had a line all the way down to (Blue Ridge Biscuit Co.)," Shane said. "We've sold out before noon most days and we haven't even done any advertising."

Owning and operating a business in the food service industry is a sharp contrast to the couple's experience in the corporate world. 

"It's a very messy job," Beckie said. "But it really gives you a whole different appreciation for people who work in the industry. It's a lot of hard work."

Keeping up with the demand has been challenging, but with only four employees the Davis family has only been able to do morning runs in their first couple of weeks. The shop will likely extend its hours during the summer, when Kiley is out of school.

"We really just want this to be a gathering place for families and the rest of the community," Shane said. "We want everyone to come in, hang out, and eat some doughnuts."