BY SUSAN BANIAK BUSINESS LEXINGTON
It’s been almost four years since North Lime Coffee and Donuts opened its first neighborhood shop in a former downtown liquor store on the corner of Sixth Street and North Limestone Avenue. Since then, the business has grown into a favorite local destination for Lexington doughnut aficionados.
The company expanded in 2014 to a second location, in the former Stanley J’s deli location in Stonewall Center on Clays Mill Road, to better serve demand from its South Lexington clientele.
Now North Lime owners Joe Ross, Heidi Hays and Teddy Ray are looking to spread the sweetness to Louisville, with a third store planned for 701 W. Ormsby, near the University of Louisville Convention Center.
“Each location has a completely different feeling, and that is exactly what we wanted,” said Hays, a former mechanical engineer with a penchant for cake decoration who left a job at Lexmark to join North Lime’s ownership team. “We want each to feel like the local coffee shop.”
The new 3,000-square-foot location in Louisville, which will be twice the size of the company’s Clays Mill Road location, will be housed in a circa-1888 building in the city’s Old Louisville section.
“The stores really reflect not only the neighborhoods, but the people we hire,” said Ross, who left a career as a mortgage broker for the coffee shop business.
North Lime’s brain trust is rounded out by Ray, a pastor at First United Methodist Church, who also has a background in business and finance. Together, the trio have harnessed their varied skill sets behind a unified mission for their business, which includes a strong neighborhood focus.
As part of that focus, the company works to incorporate itself into the fabric of its communities as much as possible, Ross said. That includes buying locally and using local services. North Lime will be working to enlist a Louisville coffee roaster to supply the new shop, Ross said. Lexington-based Nate’s Coffee is the supplier for the company’s Lexington stores.
North Lime gives its employees a lot of creative license when it comes to selecting which varieties it will sell and developing new flavors, Hays added. The company currently has 40 employees, a number which will soon grow with the Louisville opening.
The stores rotate their daily doughnut selections among more than 300 available varieties. Although the plain glazed doughnut are the shop’s biggest sellers, its more exotic doughnut concoctions, ranging from French toast to chicken waffle, have drawn the most attention for the company.
In March, the shop pits its most popular varieties against each other, comparing daily sales in a bracket-style tournament to determine which pastry reigns supreme. This year’s ultimate champion was maple bacon.
North Lime’s pastry prowess was also highlighted last year in a competition called “Sugar Showdown,” featured on the Cooking Channel, in which doughnut-makers from across the country were asked to exhibit their skills by developing new doughnut varieties based on specifi c themes. North Lime won the fi rst-place prize of $10,000 with its Pineapple Pirate, a spiced pineapple cake doughnut with a molasses rum drizzle, along with a sandwichstyle, corned beef Monte Cristo creation and a Saint Patrick’s Day-themed Depth Charge, a chocolate stout doughnut fi lled with Irish whiskey buttercream.
“Outside of prom, I think it’s the most nervous I’ve ever been,” said Ross, who was part of the team that participated in the 14-hour competition in Toronto.
While the doughnuts tend to grab the spotlight, Ross and Hays agree that the best part of their business is the people behind the pastries. For Hays, being able to identify and highlight hidden skills and talents within employees has been one of the most satisfying elements of the business endeavor.
The management teams, led by Aaron Kersey at the North Limestone shop and Nick Cooper at the Clay’s Mill location, have risen to the challenge, Hays said. And with capable staff and managers at both stores, Hays has gained the time and flexibility to focus again on her passion for cakes. Earlier this year, the company launched the Cakery out of a small working kitchen behind the North Limestone shop, where Hays crafts custom cakes for weddings and other special events.
“I get to make my own job basically,” Hays said. “It’s a cool opportunity to decide what you want to do and see if it works.”
In addition to its efforts to shape its stores around their local communities, North Lime also gives back by donating 10 percent of its profits to a variety of local charitable causes. The store is currently partnering with nearby schools through the Nourish Your Neighborhood initiative to buy meals for children who live in food-insecure households.
Hays and Ross said customers often ask about the possibility of getting the company to set up shop in additional cities, including Cincinnati and Nashville. Such expansion isn’t out of the question, they said, but for now, the company is focused on its new Louisville enterprise.
“We’re not an explosion growth company,” Hays said. “I think we are going to grow fairly slowly.”