After successfully launching as a mobile business, Donut NV, Alex and Amanda Gingold, 2001 graduates, opens a brick-and-mortar location.
Donut NV recently put down roots on South Hanover Street in Pottstown in a retail space included in the Hanover Square townhome development.
“It was one of those opportunities that found us,” said co-owner Alex Gingold. “The highlight of the brick-and-mortar store is getting to know the community.”
Royersford residents Alex and Amanda (Scott) Gingold set up the brick-and-mortar doughnut shop after launching a successful food truck business focused on selling doughnuts in July 2015.
“It was so successful we had to add another trailer the following month,” said Alex Gingold, a Lehigh County native who graduated from Penn State Berks with a degree in small business and entrepreneurship in 2012. “We travel the Tri-state area.”
Putting down roots
Alex and his wife, Amanda, who graduated from Exeter High School in 2001 and also attended Penn State Berks, put down roots in the doughnut business in 2014 with a kiosk at the Philadelphia Premium Outlets, called Cinnamini Donuts.
The mini doughnuts are made in front of the customers and are only about a third the size of a regular doughnut, hopefully bringing less guilt to the table.
Alex said, “It was something different. Cupcakes were kind of played out.”
Donuts were a runaway success for the Gingolds, according to Alex, and the demand grew for catering weddings, private parties and corporate events.
“We both came from corporate America,” he said. “We weren’t happy with our schedules and we wanted to work together and spend more time together.”
The kiosk at the Premium Outlets solidified a relationship with the outlet’s owner, Simon Premium Outlets, who eventually permitted the Gingolds’ food trucks access to their outlets along the East Coast.
“The kiosk was good, but you were tied to a seven day a week schedule,” Alex said. “The food trucks allowed us to follow the market.The food trucks are still a full-time business for us.”
And the market research told the Gingolds that the name Cinnamini Donuts denoted only cinnamon doughnuts to consumers, causing the brand to relaunch as Donut NV in 2018.
Franchise opportunities for mobile doughnut shops in protected mobile territories are offered through Donut NV with a proprietary mobile unit that converts from a kiosk to a trailer, an endeavor which took a year to develop and is made at a company in Salt Lake City.
“The unit can be pulled with almost any vehicle,” Alex said.
Selling and training
Along with franchise opportunities came the need for training, which started the Gingolds on the journey ending with their shop in Pottstown which will double as a training facility.
The 1,000-square-foot store has 20 seats for customers and joins the development leasing office and a yoga studio in retails spaces.
onut NV doughnuts are made from a proprietary recipe and created in custom doughnut-making machines made in Hungary, stamped with the Donut NV logo, and available to be sold to franchisees.
“They’re cake doughnuts, not yeast doughnuts,” Alex said. “They’re light and fluffy.”
The doughnuts are reminiscent of funnel cake, he says, and can be topped with a choice of sugars including Oreo, Fruity Pebbles, cinnamon and French toast, and dipped in sauce such as vanilla, Hershey’s chocolate and Nutella.
Alex said his wife is a big cooking advocate and baker and he enjoys eating sweets.
“It’s a good mix,” he said.
Also available at Donut NV are fresh squeezed orange juice and lemonade, fresh brewed ice tea, hot coffee and a special iced coffee called NVous, a blend with condensed milk and sugar.
A grab-and-go case is onsite for a quick meal and Nelson’s ice cream, previously made in Royersford, is on the menu in cups, cones, and milkshakes, along with bagels from the New York Bagelry in West Lawn.
“We always said if we had a store, we’d have the best bagels,” Alex said.
Traffic to the new shop has been busy with early morning commuters, students, networking groups, travelers, and residents, and corporate and catering orders have been coming in with delivery available within a 25-mile radius through EZ Cater, according to the owners.
“We went back to our roots and what we enjoyed,” Alex said. “You can really change someone’s attitude by giving someone something delicious. We have so many people saying thank you for picking Pottstown.”