Customer line stays long during Parlor Doughnuts grand opening
“We feel great,” said Saad Ahmed, franchise owner of the Farragut store. “We had a great, warm welcome from the community.
“We had lines out the door all day Saturday, and there were people willing to wait in the rain with umbrellas, and it was cold,” he added. “They still stuck it through, so I think (the shop) is going to be a great addition, especially being across from Farragut High School.
“We’ll will have a new little hangout for the kids; we have a big dining room, lounge seating and couch seating and communal table seating. Students can come here, probably, before school and after school and study, wait on their parents, hang out.”
The not-so-traditional doughnuts will draw high school students, adults and children, according to the owner.
“It’s not a traditional cake doughnut,” Ahmed said. “It’s like a light, airy, flaky doughnut. It’s got a lot of layers to it.
“We have 23 total flavors, from basic, like chocolate and vanilla glaze with sprinkles, all the way to, like, our filled doughnuts, like raspberry filled or apple filled,” he added. “We also have some funky ones, like cheesecake on them with pecans and nuts, caramel and chocolate drizzle.”
For example, “We’ve got a raspberry pistachio,” Ahmed said. “No one ever thought of putting pistachios on doughnuts but it works.”
How about French toast, honey glazed or caramel bliss? There are even dog doughnuts.
To go with the doughnuts, the shop also has coffee variety: drip, iced latte, iced chai latte, iced Mayan mocha, cold brew, iced matcha and more.
Also featured are hot chocolate, acai bowls, avocado toast, breakfast sandwiches and tacos and sausage biscuits.
Locating a store in Farragut’s Biddle Farms “was always the plan,” Ahmed said. “We wanted to do one in the downtown (Knoxville) area and open one in the Farragut area.
“We pretty much signed the lease (on the Farragut store) around the same time as the downtown (Knoxville) shop,” he added. “It’s just that the development took a little longer in Farragut, but that was the plan — just because they have such scalability (and) sharing employees, inventory and things like that.”
In going into the doughnut business, Ahmed said he also is in the pizza business.
“Pizza is people’s dinner; it’s their lunch, and it’s open until midnight,” he said. “Doughnuts and coffee is more like a treat for people.
“I feel like people are willing to spend more money when they’re treating themselves,” Ahmed added. “And, there’s always a demand for things like doughnuts, cookies and things like that.”
He also likes the hours of operation — from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week.
Customers can order through third parties, such as Grubhub, DoorDash and Uber Eats. The Parlor’s website, parlordoughnuts.com, caters for special events, such as weddings, birthdays, baby showers and baby gender parties.
“We can do custom doughnuts for baby showers and baby reveals,” Ahmed said. “We can do a pink filling or a blue filling.”
For more information, call 865-392-8392.
