Clarksville, TN – If you haven’t been to Parlor doughnuts, you’ve probably heard of it. If you haven’t heard about it, it’s time you did. The little shop on Madison Street is baking layered doughnuts fresh every day, and they have quickly become one of Clarksville’s favorite sweet indulgences.
Chris Block, Director of Operations for the franchise group that owns stores in Clarksville and Bowling Green, and rights to several other markets recently sat down to talk about the company, the customers, and the product.
“Chris Proctor came up with the idea while he was on a vacation in Destin, FL.,” Block said. “He wanted some coffee, but was in the wrong lane for Starbucks. He saw a big line for a place called Parlor Doughnuts, so he and his family tried the doughnuts and coffee that morning, then ate there every day for the rest of the week.”
When Proctor got back from vacation he talked to his business partner Stephen Oaks, and said ‘I’ve found the franchise we need to open’.
Parlor Doughnuts started franchising in 2021. The company began in Evansville, IN. “And now, here we are,” Block said. “We have two restaurants now and seven territories – Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Asheville, NC, Chattanooga and Cleveland, TN, and Bowling Green, KY.
“The Clarksville store opened on June 11, 2023. We had to do a lot of work to convert this space into what you see now. They had to pull up concrete and add plumbing and electricity. It took a lot of money and a lot of time.”
Parlor Doughnuts offers specialty doughnuts you can’t get anywhere else. “Our coffee is roasted by Parlor Doughnuts in Evansville, IN, and shipped to us within two days,” Block said. “It’s fresh and proprietary. All our coffees come from beans that they roast themselves. At Christmas we offer something called a Sleigh-rider that we also sell in cans. We also sell bags of coffee.”
Block says Parlor’s coffee business is picking up. “People see the doughnuts and don’t understand that we have awesome coffee, amazing coffee,” Block said. “We have iced lattes, hot lattes, hot chocolate for the kids made from the espresso machine. Everything is made from scratch, which you don’t often find anymore.”
Parlor’s signature dough is tied, fried, rolled in sugar, and glazed in-house. Block continued, “We don’t mix our dough on site, but it is our recipe that is made specifically for us. Parlor offers between twenty and twenty-four flavors at a time, depending on the season. We change up the menu for Fall and Winter. On special holidays, like Halloween, we might add sprinkles, and we do free minis if you show up in costume.”
The base is the same for all the flavors. There are keto and gluten-free options as well. “That’s also something that sets us apart,” Block said. “We have people with Celiac disease who haven’t been able to eat doughnuts for years. I’ve had people cry when they eat the first doughnut they’ve had in years, or maybe ever, because they can’t have gluten.”
Team members have to show up at 4:00am to get the doors open by 6:00am. “We have a lot of people who stop in early before work, teachers coming to get doughnuts for their classrooms, things like that,” Block said. “Summertime, it’s a later start, we don’t start getting busier ’til later in the morning. During the school year, sometimes people wait in the parking lot with their lights on.”
Around 12:00pm each day they take the display case down, but Block says you can still get any doughnut you want, all day long. If you don’t see it, just ask, and they’ll make it for you.
Nothing is used the next day. It’s all fresh every day. “We do small batches all day,” Block said. “Right now, we have two trays of base doughnuts ready to go in the back. If we’re going through them we’ll just ready another couple of trays.”
Each morning they fill the display cases with a huge variety of flavors, once the early rush is over they make doughnuts to order.
“Our most popular flavors are French Toast and Strawberry Shortcake with fresh fruit,” Block said. “Maple Bacon and Peanut Butter Cup are my faves, and the Raspberry Jelly Doughnut is so good!! At the end of the day we hardly have anything left. But we’ll take them and donate them to places like the police station or a local business, or to someone who hasn’t tried them before. We’ve taken several to EMS stations and fire stations, and that’s what we do. We don’t waste anything, and people get to try them that might not have had them before.”
The stores stay busy, but each location has a relatively small staff of just eight to ten employees. The Madison Street location’s hours are currently 6:00am – 3:00pm, seven days a week. Nationwide, the company has expanded to about 60 stores, and they are steadily opening more.
“The economy can be rough on small businesses, so its tough to be growing in this economy,” Block said. “We’re thankful. I Just say to everyone, come try us. It’s an awesome environment. We have a wonderful staff. It’s something different than you’ve tried before, and it could be addictive.
“And we’re not just doughnuts. We’re a coffee shop and a breakfast shop. We have wonderful breakfast food. We have sausage biscuits, breakfast tacos, spinach pesto sandwiches, bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches, avocado toast, and more. We are way more than just doughnuts.”
A lot of Parlor’s business is carryout and online. General Manager Emilee Davis says it could be as much as 25% at times.
“Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are our busiest days,” Block said. “We’ll start with about 480 doughnuts on a regular day and about 960 on the busier days. And our doughnuts are a lot cheaper by the dozen. The shelf life is pretty good, you just have to be careful with whipped topping and fresh fruit, be sure to put them in the refrigerator.”
Block recommends popping them in the microwave for a few seconds, saying, “They’re perfect. These are layered doughnuts, fluffy and airy. They fill you up but they’re not dense. They don’t make you tired. It’s the perfect balance in the French style.
“We have a lot of regulars; some come in daily, and some come primarily for the coffee. Parlor’s founders, a preacher and his son, were in a Christian band. They were experiencing coffee shops and doughnut shops across the country, and they decided they should open one of their own. In Evansville, IN they started the coffee shop, then the doughnut shop, then merged the two, and here we are.”
