For Teresa Vigueras, having a good doughnut at her new shop is second in importance to only one thing.
“I don’t care that much that you got a great doughnut,” she said. “It’s important, but I care that when you leave that you feel better than when you came in the door. That’s important to me.”
Vigueras, one of the owners of the newly opened University Donut Company, said she’s seen students walk through the shop doors late at night lost or with broken hearts, something she hopes the employees at the shop can help remedy through their interactions.
“These kids up here that are late at night, a lot of them are trying to escape what’s going on at campus or trying to escape what’s going on at home,” she said. “And this sort of gets to be a safe place for them.”
After having an on-campus food truck on campus for a month, the family-owned doughnut business opened a storefront on East Magnolia Avenue on Sept. 17 with ever-changing menu items and an underlying mission to make a difference in those who enter its doors.
“Doughnuts and food and school—all that stuff passes away,” she said. “The only thing that has a long-term impact ... is not to give you a good doughnut. It’s to encourage you to be the best person you can be, to encourage you to go for everything you want in this life and to not get discouraged and not to get down by life … that day, that test, is just a blink. Tomorrow is going to be OK.”
The business’ slogan, Hole Lotta Lovin’, communicates the heart behind the business, she said.
“Our mission statement would be to change lives for the better every day,” Vigueras, who also works full time as a college minister at First United Methodist Church Alexander City, said. “That anybody we meet, we have the power and the ability to make their day better.”
The doughnuts listed on the menu come in flavors ranging from coconut to caramel toffee to banana pudding. And the shop offers yeast, cake, old-fashioned and sour cream doughnuts.
But the flavors are always evolving.
“Every day we come up with a different doughnut,” Vigueras said. “We’re always trying to come up with something new. It makes eating more fun.”
Tommy Jernigan, freshman in marketing, created the Lemonhead doughnut, a yeast doughnut filled with lemon cream and topped with chopped Lemonheads, one of his favorite candies.
He and his five housemates all work at the doughnut business. All of the shop’s employees are college students.
“I used to work at a grocery store, and it’s like you’re working with coworkers,” he said. “Here it’s not coworkers. It’s friends. It’s a lot different.”
Some flavors are always on the menu, but Vigueras said she plans to offer the more labor-intensive doughnuts only on specific days of the week.
Customers also have the option to build their own doughnut, selecting from a variety of doughnut base flavors, icings and toppings. She said she’s working on gluten-free options for the future as well.
The idea to start the business came from Vigueras’ daughter and son-in-law, Juliana and Eric Truska, who frequented a specialty doughnut shop in Springfield, Missouri. The three of them, along with Vigueras’ husband, own the shop together.
Vigueras said she doesn’t actually like doughnuts and would pick a cookie or a pie before opting for the circular pastry.
“So I thought, if I’m going to have to sell something I love, I’ve got to make it to where I love it and I want to eat it,” she said.
So she set out to return to The Plains, putting her house for sale and leaving Memphis.
For her, it was moving back home.
“I’ve been to four colleges," she said. "The only college that I have any loyalty to, the only college I love and long to be on campus, is this college."
The business’ name aligns with the family’s goal to eventually franchise the business and place shops at different universities.
The doughnuts initially appeared on Auburn University’s campus in August, where Tanner Allengamble, Southern Union State Community College student, has worked since it opened. Since then, Auburn students have come to know him by name.
“It’s a lot more fun because of the people you meet,” he said of the job compared to others he’s had in the past.
The truck sells d’waffles, two doughnut halves filled with meats and cheeses and placed on a waffle iron, and skewers with Sister Schubert’s rolls, Conecuh sausage and doughnut holes.
As for competition such as Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' Donuts, Vigueras said she’s not worried.
“The kids will tell you our doughnuts are better than Krispy Kreme's,” she said. “Our niche is so different, I don’t think anybody really does a doughnut like we do.”
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