Joe Ross, co-founder of North Lime Coffee and Donuts, likes to tell people that the origins of his doughnut dynasty sound too humorous to be true. But, like some of the more unusual toppings for the restaurant’s coveted pastries, somehow it works.
“When we started in 2012, I was a mortgage broker, and Heidi [Hays] was a mechanical engineer, and Teddy [Ray] was a pastor, so it kind of sounded like the beginning of a joke,” he said, laughing. “‘A pastor, a banker and an engineer...’”
Ross’ lighthearted approach continues with his chosen title of CE-JOE instead of CEO, leading three North Lime Coffee and Donuts shops along with his partners.
Ray, currently in his second year of Yale law school, attends to the shops’ finances, and Hays occasionally works in the shops. Ross oversees day-to-day operations, including everything from fixing toilets to writing HR manuals.
Ross said his dream to own a coffee shop was set into motion more than a decade ago when he tasted the stellar coffee and doughnuts at Seattle’s famed Top Pot Doughnuts.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s a gourmet side to doughnuts that I didn’t know existed,’” he said. “I thought it would be really fun to pair with great coffee here in Lexington.”
He began writing a business plan and put out partnership feelers. He met with his future co-owners in February 2012 to discuss going in on the venture. At the time, Hays, an acquaintance of Ross’ wife, was making elaborate cakes as a side job.
The partners decided that the doughnuts would be scratch-made, with an inventive streak and plenty of culinary flair. They opened their first shop later that year at the intersection of North Limestone and West 6th streets.
A decade later there are now two Lexington locations — the shop moved farther down North Limestone into the Greyline Station building and also opened a location on Clays Mill Road. North Lime Coffee and Donuts expanded into Louisville in 2018, with a location in Old Louisville. A Westport Village location opened in August.
Ross said the business strategy to expand into Louisville intuitively felt right in both place and timing.
“We’ve had a lot of people asking us to please come to Louisville,” he said. “We looked at some different spots but felt at home in Old Louisville.”
Ross said that shop is in a beautiful old brick building built in the 1800s, and the neighborhood and its residents have been supportive. For the Westport Village site, Louisville customers had long clamored
for an east side location, Ross said, so when representatives from the Westport Village shopping center approached North Lime’s owners about opening a spot there, they went to check it out. Ross said they were impressed by the number of locally owned businesses in the center.
“I was like, ‘OK, this is a place where we can thrive among other local business owners,’” he said.
Even though only one of its four locations is on North Limestone, the brand and its iconic owl logo have stuck. Ross visits each shop at least once a week, he said.
North Lime’s doughnuts are distinctive. To ensure their coffee also stands out, Ross said award-winning roasters in and outside of Kentucky are carefully selected to provide beans. North Lime staff members perform checks with a refractometer to measure total dissolved solids in the coffee and ensure optimal taste and quality.
“So much goes into making coffee — from the farm, the farmers and the roasters … it’s our job to represent them and all the hard work they put into it,” he said.
Ross said many shops nationwide use 50-pound bags of mixes to make yeast, cake and old-fashioned-style doughnuts. Amounts are measured out and mixed with water, and the resulting dough is fried to make standard doughnuts, to which different toppings are applied.
North Lime employees learn to make scratch-made recipes from the start, using preservative-free butter and milk.
Staff members are encouraged to come up with fun flavors — and they do. Recent examples include savory flavors like pulled pork doughnuts and cheddar jalapeno cornbread doughnuts with beer cheese. In partnership with local breweries, there’s even a gingerbread porter doughnuts with cream cheese icing, which Ross said is one of his favorites. He’s also partial to a blueberry cake-style doughnut topped with bacon and maple icing.
In addition to an ever-rotating cast of specialty doughnut varieties, favorites such as plain-glazed yeast, chocolate-iced yeast, and “cinnemonkies” yeast doughnut holes rolled in cinnamon sugar have a permanent place on the menu. Vegan and gluten-free doughnuts are also often featured.
For fall, pumpkin cream filled, pumpkin harvest and pumpkin chocolate chip donuts are among the stores’ seasonal flavors.
Ross said the biggest challenge is getting new staff up to speed on all the intricacies of coffee and doughnut making, but with great trainers and training programs, he said most people pick up the skills quickly.
More expansion isn’t out of the question, but, for now, he said the business is focused on navigating economic pressures and supply-chain issues while ensuring profitability.
As North Lime celebrates its 10th anniversary, Ross said the sweetest reward has been watching the business’ and its employees’ evolution.
“Just watching people grow in our company is just so awesome,” he said. “I’ve loved that more than anything.”