Lamar's Donuts and Coffee is a restaurant

chain A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A c ...

that makes

donuts A doughnut or donut () is a type of food made from leavened fried dough. It is popular in many countries and is prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and fra ...

and

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. S ...

. It was founded in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

, with its headquarters in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. Lamar's has 25 stores in five states:

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

and

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

. Lamar's Donuts has won newspaper readers' poll awards for best doughnuts in several cities.

History

In 1960, founder Ray LaMar opened a donut shop in midtown Kansas City, in a converted

gas station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasoline ...

Linwood Boulevard Linwood Boulevard, Linwood, or 33rd Street is a major west/east main street that runs in Kansas City, Missouri from Broadway Boulevard to Van Brunt Boulevard. Linwood is one of the few named east-west streets in the Kansas City grid south of the Mi ...

. In 1990, Lamar and his wife decided to franchise the business. The business has since relocated and is currently headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

Products

Lamar's offers a variety of

, including Ray's Original Glazed Donuts, cake donuts, donut holes. They also offer specialties including Lamar's Bars, Bizmarks and sour cream donuts. Lamar's roasts their coffee beans in Denver, then ships them to their stores. Their coffee drinks include

cappuccino A cappuccino (; ; Italian plural: ''cappuccini'') is an espresso-based coffee drink that originated in Austria and was later popularized in Italy and is prepared with steamed milk foam (microfoam). Variations of the drink involve the use of cre ...

latte Caffè latte (), often shortened to just latte () in English, is a coffee beverage of Italian origin made with espresso and steamed milk. Variants include the chocolate-flavored mocha or replacing the coffee with another beverage base such as ma ...

s and iced

espresso Espresso (, ) is a coffee-brewing method of Italian origin, in which a small amount of nearly boiling water (about ) is forced under of pressure through finely-ground coffee beans. Espresso can be made with a wide variety of coffee beans and ...

-based beverages, as well as blended espresso-based drinks. Lamar's Donuts also offers a line of blended fruit smoothies called LA Frappés.

Media recognition

The donuts made by Lamar's have been positively reviewed by numerous national media sources including NBC's

Jay Leno James Douglas Muir Leno (; born April 28, 1950) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and actor. After doing stand-up comedy for years, he became the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show'' from 1992 to 2009. Beginning in September 2009 ...

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ...

and the

Zagat Survey The ''Zagat Survey'', commonly referred to as Zagat (stylized in all caps; , ) and established by Tim and Nina Zagat in 1979, is an organization which collects and correlates the ratings of restaurants by diners. For their first guide, covering ...

dubbed Ray the "King of Donuts." They are also included on several awards lists, including: * Best of KC by 435 Magazine and Pitch Magazine in 2014 * Colorado's Best Food and Beverage Brand by

Yahoo News Yahoo! News is a news website that originated as an internet-based news aggregator by Yahoo!. The site was created by a Yahoo! software engineer named Brad Clawsie in August 1996. Articles originally came from news services such as the Associate ...

in 2014 * Best of

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

in 2016 by Omaha Magazine * Feast Magazine's best donut shop in 2016 * Best Restaurant in Kansas and Denver in 2016 by Zomato.com *

Travel Channel's Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical Location (geography), locations. Travel can be done by Pedestrian, foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be ...

Best of Missouri in 2017 For National Donut Day in 2017, they became the first donut store to deliver donuts via air drone, making drops around Denver to the mayor, police, firefighters, and community members. This event generated media placements both locally and nationally, including features in four Denver TV stations,

Denver Business Journal American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes The Business Journals, which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States, Hemmings Motor News ...

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

, and

Mashable Mashable is a digital media platform, news website and entertainment company founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005. History Mashable was founded by Pete Cashmore while living in Aberdeen, Scotland, in July 2005. Early iterations of the site were a ...

Partnerships

Lamar's Donuts has participated in events such as the annual Whiskey and the Donuts Festival in Denver. LaMar's Donuts works with local police officers to sponsor events on National Coffee with a Cop Day. Lamar's has frequently partnered with

The Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestant church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. The organisation reports a worldwide membership of over 1.7million, comprising soldiers, officers and adherents col ...

since 2009 to donate proceeds from the week of National Donut Day to the organization's youth services. They also celebrate this event by educating the community about The Salvation Army's programs and how people can help or contribute to their cause.

References

Companies based in Denver Bakeries of the United States Doughnut shops in the United States 1960 establishments in Missouri {{US-restaurant-stub

History

Products

Media recognition

Partnerships

See also

References