Parlor Doughnuts plans to open its first Duval County store in mid-May.
The Jacksonville Beach shop is at 528 Beach Blvd. between south Fifth and Sixth streets.
It is in the former Wonderbird fast-food restaurant space.
Franchise owners Israel “Izzy” Guibas and Rebecca Mullin opened Parlor Doughnuts at 585 State Road 13 N., Suite 101, in Fruit Cove in May 2022 and soon after opened a second at 3920 Florida A1A, Unit 5, in St. Augustine Beach, Mullin said.
They also are working to open a shop later this year in World Golf Village.
The business partners will add Guibas’ son, Mike, and Mullin’s daughters, Madison and Grayson Sheets, as part of the franchise group to include the Jacksonville Beach location and another planned in Fleming Island.
RaegenHarris is their operations manager. She began as a regular customer in Fruit Cove, and when she demonstrated latte design skills she quit her bartending job to become a barista and soon became part of the management team.
The franchise group has rights to several counties along Florida’s northeast coast past Daytona Beach into the eastern part of Orlando.
Guibas and Mullin have been neighbors in Switzerland, Florida, since 1991. The families often vacationed together. The partners operated the Twisted Compass Brewing Co. coffee shop in Fruit Cove until vacationing in Destin and sampled their first Parlor Doughnuts there. A few visits convinced them they wanted to get into the business and they replaced Twisted Compass with their first Parlor Doughnuts.
The Jacksonville Beach store had been a Wendy’s and more recently Wonderbird. Because it was recently remodeled, Guibas estimated costs to prepare the store for opening at $400,000. The World Golf Village Parlor is a from-scratch build he estimated will cost close to $1 million.
“You don’t want to reinvent the wheel. A full build-out is very expensive. Unless you just have a tremendous location that you could justify it. The cost of everything from the ground up plumbing, drywall all that adds up very quickly,” Guibas said.
“We had been looking at another location near Atlantic Beach, but as the chips fell, this is a better location for us visibility-wise.”
Parlor serves a variety of layered, small-batch doughnuts as well as breakfast items, sandwiches, coffee and tea products, juices and kombucha. They offer Proper Coffee, a blend served at all Parlor Doughnuts locations.
Unlike other franchises, the Guibas and Mullin locations do not serve milkshakes because of space constraints. They may add them later at the Jacksonville Beach location.
Parlor’s doughnuts are made by layering dough and butter and then frying them until they are crisp on the outside and light on the inside. It offers 22 to 28 varieties with sweet toppings. They also make a doughnut for dogs, although pets are not allowed in the store.
The menu changes seasonally and some locations have specialty doughnuts not available elsewhere.
The menu includes gluten-friendly, vegan and keto options. The recipe is not certified to use the term gluten-free.
The Jacksonville Beach location will be the first area Parlor with a drive-thru. While built with two lanes, only one will be in use initially. Drive-thru service won’t be offered right away but is expected to be offered a month or so after the shop opens.
Parlor Doughnuts headquarters will train the team how to make the drive-thru service an efficient operation, Guibas said.
It is important to Mullin that customers stop in, relax and congregate.
“I think it’s hugely important to create a space where the community feels comfortable. And then they want to come they want to hang out. They want to be part of what’s going on,” she said.
“Since the St. Augustine store opened, we’ve been trying to meet the local people and try and be there.”
The Jacksonville Beach dining area will seat 44. The shop is hiring 30-45 workers ages 16 and older.
It will be open 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Doughnuts cost $2.95 and $27 a dozen. The pastries are larger than a hockey puck, Mullin said.
The shop does special orders for churches, schools and businesses. Recently, it supplied 50 dozen doughnuts for a Bartram Trail High School senior class event.
Darrick Hayden and Josh Tudela started Parlor Doughnuts in 2019 in Evansville, Indiana.
There are 40 Parlor locations in 12 states with another 34 in the planning stage, according to the company website.