If you were looking forward to a Shipley Do-Nuts in Duluth, don't hold your breath. First announced in May 2022, the Duluth location was to have opened by the end of 2022 but never did. A separate franchise group ultimately opened metro Atlanta's first and currently only Shipley Do-Nuts location on Keith Bridge Road in Cumming in March 2023.
ToNeTo Atlanta has for months been trying to get confirmation on the status of the restaurant and was finally last week provided a vague answer to our inquiry from SPM Communications, Shipley's "communications" firm.
“Plans are currently on hold for our Duluth location. We continue to actively recruit well-qualified franchisees and have big plans for expansion in the Atlanta area and throughout the Southeast.”
Questions seeking confirmation on what exactly that means and if the location will ever open were, like our previous inquiries, not immediately answered.
A Google listing created for the planned Pleasant Hill location indicates it is "temporarily closed," despite having never opened. The Duluth location also remains listed on the Shipley Do-Nuts website where it is said to be "coming soon."
A source close to the planned Duluth location confirmed to ToNeTo Atlanta this week that Shipley Do-Nuts is in fact no longer opening and that several other quick-serve restaurants have expressed interest in the space.
Last May Houston, Texas-based Shipley Do-Nuts appointed Flynn Dekker as its new CEO. Dekker, who had previously served as Korean fried chicken chain Bonchon's CEO, succeeded Clifton Rutledge, who rejoined the company's board of directors. Rutledge, who was previously CEO of Bojangles, had served as Shipley's CEO since June 2021.
As for the Cumming location, nine of the last ten Google reviews left for the business are five stars with the tenth being a four. Sweet Donuts Investments Inc., owned by Oziel “Ozzie” Rodriguez and his wife Brenda, operate the Cumming location and have an agreement to open as many as five locations in the greater metro Atlanta area in the years to come. It's unclear what their current expansion plans are.
Have you been to the Cumming location of Shipley Do-Nuts? Where would you like to see Shipley Do-Nuts open next? Who do you think makes the best donut in metro Atlanta?
Please share your thoughts below.
16 comments:
I think that the so-called gourmet doughnut trend has dissipated together with the trend for gourmet cupcakes, flavored bacon, Candy coated cake, croissant based donuts/Cronuts, and similar. I forget the name but that one gourmet donut shop that was founded by the young Baker and is open 24 hours in the Briarcliff North Druid area. I think he carved himself out a good niche and simultaneously Dunkin has completely bastardized the idea of donuts. Their donuts are now, mostly out of a factory are very small and low quality kind of like those bags of Little Debbie donuts except they are trying to pass them off as traditional Dunkin available individually or by the dozen and they are failing miserably. I literally saw one of the store managers pull a French cruller from a supermarket box of Krispy Kreme crullers. Yuck.
I’m glad they had finally brought Entenmann’s here in the ATL metro. I prefer a good Entenmann’s doughnut, especially the chocolate covered cake donuts when they are refrigerated. Entenmann’s donuts are always fresh. In terms of a donut shop I prefer duck donuts to everything that’s out there. Donuts are just simply good and have great quality. If you donut stinks at duck donuts it’s only because you built it that way, when you order, they literally drop your donuts in the donut fryer, and you build it like You would a subway sandwich,
I love sandwiches.
Shipley Do-Nuts are overrated. I drove from Marietta to try them and they were good but I could have gotten the same quality doughnuts in Marietta. If they were 5 miles away then I would go get them ... Anything further and further away the answer NO grows stronger. Good luck
Sublime Donuts are what you were thinking about, however the location on Briarcliff at NDH is Kosher and does not sell the Bacon Maple Donuts nor do the Donuts taste the same as the original location.
You are very right the donut and overpriced cupcake craze is over. The price for a single donut is crazy $3 for one plain donut? Even at DD the Donuts are made in offsite bakery where by the time it gets to the shop its already been sitting in the air drying out for 6 hours.
I agree with your points. I read somewhere perhaps on this wonderful blog, That the donuts at Dunkin come from one of three sources a. being literally just a couple of stores are cooking them in store, b. Many others are using a communal type ghost kitchen where someone has a contract and the third option is literally bring in supermarket box donuts and c. Many of the newer locations, adjacent to fuel stations and strip miles, are taking them from the supermarket box and putting them directly on display. These donuts I mentioned from the boxes at the supermarket are not even from the bakery section! they’re from the mass retail section. Ironically, I agree in terms of consistency and quality From a packaged donut product that I’d go with entenmanns all the way!
Dunkin doesn’t sell donuts in the grocery store. What are you talking about? All Dunkin get them from a central commissary. Has been like that for years. They don’t make them in the store or put store brand donuts on their shelf.
Yep. DD has their donuts made off-site and then trucked in. Long gone are the days of my youth when I could smell the donuts being made overnight at my local DD. Back then they also had counter service with real flatware and silverware too.
Best donuts are at the beach. My favorite is Charlie's donut truck on 30-A near Alys Beach but there's several others around and everyone has their favorite. They are also better for you because calories don't count on vacation.
Ingles has good donuts and should open stand-alone bakeries selling them.
Marietta Donuts, next to the Shell service station on Johnson Ferry Road Road in East Cobb, is the best!
I’ve seen it. I know others that have seen it. They took supermarket donuts out of the supermarket boxes annd pouches and put them individually on display for sale. I know someone that ordered a cake doughnut, and they took it literally out of a bag from hostess and put it in the Dunkin bag. The poster is not saying that it’s supposed to be that way, I think they’re saying that’s what’s actually happening on the ground.
I I’ll have to visit charlies. I love “cake by the ocean”!!
Reminds me of that song called cake by the Ocean by one of the Jonas brothers and Peter the dad from Family Guy. Now the song stuck in my head cake by the Ocean cake by the Ocean
Big Star did too. Bring them back!
Contact Paula’s Doughnut’s in Buffalo. They are spectacular !
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