Creative crew opens downtown doughnut shop

The moniker is a playful homonym, but the owners of Hurts Donut Co. are seriously creative about their doughnuts.

From a Cereal Killer line of pastries – topped with Cap’n Crunch, Fruity Pebbles or Cocoa Puffs – to maple bacon long Johns, the entrepreneurs behind Hurts Donut Co. say they are building on the recent creative cupcake model and West Coast doughnut shop trends.

“We didn’t want to wait the typical three years before trends come to the Midwest,” said co-owner Tim Clegg, who with his wife also owns the local Sno Biz franchise.

Since opening at 5 a.m. Monday, Clegg said Hurts Donut Co. has closed 700 transactions in its first 36 hours in business and served lines out the door of the small storefront.

The shop is open 24/7 – or “25 hours a day, eight days a week” as a sign exaggerates – at 301 Park Central West, across the alley from the vacant Heer’s building. Under T&C Ventures LLC, business partners Tim and Kas Clegg and Ross and Kim Tracy are targeting college students in the evenings and office workers in the mornings.

“Downtown was always our primary target market,” said Clegg.

The partners lease 1,600 square feet from Bob McCroskey for $1,200 per month the first year, and they’ve spent $20,000 in startup costs for kitchen equipment and renovations.

“There’s really not a whole lot to it,” Clegg said, noting they served as their own general contractors and used reclaimed pallets from area factories and warehouses for counters and tables. “We told them what we were doing, and they were happy to give us the wood for that.”

Clegg said the Hurts Donut name is derived from the classic joke – “Hurts, don’t it?”

“My grandpa used to pull it on me all the time,” he said. “We thought we would keep it whimsical and fun.”

The witty moniker came from a friend’s suggestion on Facebook after the business partners shot down some 1,000 names. The playful style extends to the logo, a doughnut with a Band-Aid on it, and a buy-one, get-one free deal for all patrons who wear Hurts Donut T-shirts into the shop. Its seven employees are reminded by the sign, “Glaze like a champion today.”

On Tuesday night, local social media feeds were buzzing about the opening, and the business had to close for a few hours after supplies ran out.

This morning, about a dozen customers made purchases during a 15-minute stretch at the start of the workday, passing through the front door that notes: “Solicitors and troublemakers will be glazed and sprinkled.”

“We haven’t even experienced what a weekend is going to be like,” Clegg said. “We’re nervous and scared and excited all at the same time.”