Downtown Concord donut shop hit a hole in one despite pandemic pressures

The votes from customers are in, no recount needed: doughnuts win. Looking like little life preservers, in some small way they’ve kept us afloat during the pandemic, serving as a distraction before work, or, sometimes, during the afternoon.

At least that’s the way it’s unfolded, in general and specifically for Amanda Baril, who opened the New Hampshire Doughnut Company in Capital Plaza this week, adding to the shop she has on Route 4 in Chichester after the pandemic delayed her original plan of opening in May.

She proved it in Chichester and, thus far, she’s proving it downtown as well, that doughnuts remain a popular and perfect takeout order – quick, filling, and cheap.

In fact, with the pandemic and the ensuing regulations put into place to limit the spread of COVID-19, the doughnut business is better than ever, providing peace of mind that social distancing and speed will help curb the infection.

“No doubt, it was really good for our first week,” Baril said by phone. “We had more of a soft opening, with no advertising other than Facebook, before we wanted to have a grand opening.”

That was enough to do the trick. Baril said opening day, on Tuesday, was steady through the morning and busy from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m., an hour before closing.

The next day saw the opposite occurring, with a heavy flow of customers in the earlier part of the morning and a leveling off afternoon. Now, both doughnut shops are thriving.

The Chichester branch features a drive-thru window to cater to the bulk of its customers, who prefer to zip in and out, back onto busy Route 4, rather than park and go inside.

Here in Concord, Baril says her location has changed her business model, with Concord becoming home to the main shop and inviting customers inside. Indoor seating is limited and strongly discouraged, and Baril said none of her customers have stuck around after making their purchases.

“Foot traffic is great here, which we are not used to,” Baril said. “In Chichester on Route 4 there is zero foot traffic, but now we are at the back of the entrance to Joe King’s. There are different businesses here.

“We thought Concord would take business from Chichester,” she continued, “and we wanted to see how Chichester does to see if we need to expand to more hours over there.”

Baril’s COVID experience has mixed in with other stories, sad and tragic stories, about loved ones dying and folding businesses and widespread unemployment, nearly nine months in the making, still overshadowing everything else.

Unlike those headlines, the doughnut angle appeared from left field, and it shows no signs of fading.

Baril is proof. She was born in Goffstown and lives there now. In between, she and her husband, Chad Baril, moved to North Carolina for Chad’s job working with a cabinetry company.

“We had no family (in North Carolina) and so we did a lot of traveling,” Amanda said. “We enjoyed immersing ourselves in the culture with different food and tourists and trying different things.”

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They moved back to Amanda’s hometown to be near family and have children. Amanda says she saw a doughnut robot somewhere in some town, making the dough, slicing the dough, flipping the dough.

“I saw one and thought it was cool,” she said. “I thought it was an interesting concept. I wanted something to do and I came in and had a blank canvas and so we looked into it and said let’s do it.”

She knew her kids loved making their own sundaes, personalizing them, and she had a taste for unique presentations thanks to her travels. That planted an idea.

“We thought everyone makes something different,” Baril said. “We customize doughnuts.”

That’s her hook at the Capital Plaza shop. Customization. Near the front she displays the eight doughnuts ordered most often through the Chichester’s online system, which will be up and running in Concord in a few weeks.

She listed off doughnut flavors and toppings – strawberry shortcake, maple waffle, Oreo cookies, peanuts, caramel drizzle and so on.

“We get some crazy combinations,” Baril said.

Her No. 1 selling doughnut is as intimidating as it is delicious sounding: maple bacon.

That’s the one the youngest of Baril’s three children ate each morning upon arriving at the Chichester shop with mom. He’s in school now, learning remotely with Chad, who’s working from home.

Meanwhile, Amanda, Chad and one of their other children have had enough doughnuts for a while, thank you. “Sick of them,” Amanda said.

Their daughter, though, still loves coconut ice cream, with Oreo crumbs and raspberry drizzle.

“She’ll only eat it if she can design it herself,” Baril said.

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These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.