The idea for The Holy Donut grew very organically out of a craving the founder Leigh Kellis was experiencing for some deeply satisfying yet healthy comfort food – specifically, a donut, and she knew a chain version would just not cut it.  She wanted a donut made with fresh ingredients that she could feel good about eating.  Since she couldn’t find what she was looking for, she decided to create it herself.

Leigh wanted to make donuts from scratch, using as many local ingredients as possible, she started experimenting with donut recipes in her kitchen, and in 2011 and after some trial and error, came up with a winner.  The (not-so) secret ingredient: fresh Maine potatoes.  Adding mashed potatoes gave the donuts a delicious moist texture that makes them just melt in your mouth. Once Leigh realized she had a product, she felt confident that other people would enjoy as well, and contacted Coffee by Design, which immediately agreed to buy a dozen each day to resell.  Leigh continued to pound the pavement with samples and within a year, she had a wholesale donut business on her hands!

Leigh was soon producing 40 dozen donuts a week, and was so busy making donuts that her father jumped in to help. For five months he would arrive every day at 6 a.m. to pick up that day’s deliveries, while Leigh  made every donut by hand, cooking them four at a time in a small fryolator.  Leigh’s wholesale business grew to 100 dozen donuts a week working out of a small shared commercial kitchen space, but she wanted to move beyond wholesale and open a real donut shop, which became her dream.

With some luck, Leigh was able to find a great space on Park Avenue, and “The Holy Donut” officially opened for business in March 2012. In the beginning it was just Leigh, her father and one employee.  Her customers loved her and her donuts and the business grew so quickly that they had to learn how to upscale in a massive way, while keeping the same homemade product.  Leigh would open a second location on Exchange Street in the Old Port in October 2013, and in March 2017, they opened their biggest location on Route 1 in Scarborough. In just over three years they grew to almost 80 employees, and now make two million donuts a year….Wow, what a tasty success story.