FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (and comments)
You've got questions, we've got answers. We are proud of the fact that we're really transparent with our customers, so here are some of our most frequently asked questions!
How did you get started? We are a small, family-owned and operated business. There are no investors or restauraunt groups involved in PVDonuts, and the entire endeavor was funded out of pocket by owners Lori and Paul. They took a pretty big risk to try and bring something new and exciting to the table here in Providence, and are glad they did! When you come to PVDonuts, you are supporting a true local business, and we sincerely appreciate it.
Why did you move to your new location? Our first location was a shared space with our friends over at Sin Bakery on Allens Ave. They really helped us get out feet off the ground and get the business going, which we'll forever appreciate! With respect to Sin and the operation of their business, we were only able to make our product during a small window of time, which is why during our first few months in business we had super limited amounts of donuts. We moved to our new location so that we could serve our customers better, and have complete control over our product and production hours.
Where do I park? There is tons of free parking in the Fox Point and Wickenden neighborhoods, so you can park anywhere on the street! There are a ton of amazing places to visit in our neighborhood, too. We encourage you to visit some of the other amazing businesses that we're happy to call our neighbors.
Are you handicap accessible? Unfortunately we are not. However, please Contact Us before visiting or make a note when Placing an Order to let us know that you’ll be visiting, we’d be more than happy to help accommodate, whether it means bringing your preorder out to you, or taking your order in person on the day of and bringing it out to you, along with a register to complete the transaction. We have looked into modifying our entrance, but because of the age of our building, it was never required. Given the requirements of 1' of ramp per 1" of vertical incline, a proper ramp would block the entrance to our fire panel access door. We have also looked into something on the Wickenden side of the building, but the its even taller over there and the ramp would go into our neighbors driveway.
Me or someone I’m visiting with has a medical condition, can you accommodate our visit? We can absolutely try our best! Please Contact Us before your visit to see if we can help.
How do I place a preorder, and if I preorder, do I have to wait in line? You can click the orders link in the navigation at the top of our page, or click here! And no need to wait in the regular line, there is a separate area for pickups, so head right on it.
What does PVDonuts stand for? It's a letter play and it stands for Providence Donuts. We take pride in our little city and couldn't think of a better way to celebrate that!
Why do your donuts cost more than a "regular" donut? Our donuts are made fresh, by hand, every single morning - they aren't made in some huge offsite baking facility and delivered to our shop everyday. We don't have a sheeter - we hand roll every single batch of dough, and cut each donut by hand. We don't have glazer - every donut is dipped and decorated by hand. Seriously, every single one. We use higher quality ingredients, and incorporate as many ingredients from other local businesses as we can every month. We don't have a single staff member that is paid minimum wage - everyone is paid a livable wage with paid vacation, sick time, and personal days, because the quality of life and well-being of our team members is incredibly important to us. These primary factors, among many others, contribute to a higher cost.
What payment methods do you accept? Cash, credit (including AMEX), and debit. We do not accept checks or foreign currency. We don't currently accept Cryptocurrency, but may in the future if the demand is there.
Do you sell gift cards? We do! You have two options: purchase one in store, or online here. There is no minimum or maximum denomination.
Why don't you make more donuts after you sell out? We make everything fresh which requires us to start prepping for the next day 24 hours in advance. Everything is made from scratch, by hand - rolling, cutting, dipping, etc. Since moving into our new location, we've tripled our staff and upped production from about 500 to 2,000 donuts a day.
Why aren't you open other days/more hours? As a small business with no funding, we want to make sure we make the right moves so we aren't doing harm to our business, and are creating jobs that last. We prefer to scale accordingly and add staff as necessary. Plus, we're a really small team, and it's important for everyone to have a couple of days off to unwind.
Do you deliver? We have partnered with Postmates and UberEats to offer delivery in the greater Providence Area (Providence, Cranston, East Providence and Pawtucket) - please check our Instagram story for availability. We can try our best accommodate deliveries for special events and occasions! To inquire, contact us!
Do you ship? We do not. Our donuts are made fresh every single morning without the use of preservatives or fillers, and they're meant to be eaten the same day. Also, overnight shipping is really expensive and we don't know how they'd hold up in transit.
What time does your day start? On a normal day, 1:30am, but during the holidays we head in around 12am.
Why brioche donuts? We were inspired by various donut shops around the world and wanted to present a new and unique product offering that you couldn't get anywhere else. Brioche dough creates a beautiful, light, and fluffy donut that's made with more butter than sugar. This creates the perfectly neutral base for any toppings - it's just the right amount of sweetness!
What types of drinks do you offer? We have nitro cold brew coffee and chai on tap from The Nitro Cart, regular cold brew from The Coffee Guy, and hot coffee from Borealis Coffee Company. We also have milk from Wright's Dairy Farm, hot tea from MEM Tea, and iced teas from Granny Squibb! We don't do any specialty coffees (lattes, cappuccinos, etc.) because there are a ton of amazing shops in Providence that offer these types of drinks - check them out!
Do you make gluten-free? We make a Flourless donut that is available daily (please see our Menu for monthly offerings), and "flourless" here means that it is not made with any wheat products, instead we use Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 Baking Flour. We are not a gluten-free bakery and cannot call the product gluten-free, and due to the size of our kitchen there is a chance of cross-contamination, which is why we're calling them Flourless. Our fryer is cleaned daily and we use fresh oil daily, and we have a separate batch of glazes just for these donuts.
Do you make donuts that are flourless AND vegan? We don't make a flourless vegan donut at this time, and we're not sure when we will.
Why don't you just get a separate fryer for gluten-free (or other allergies/sensitivities)? To be totally transparent, a brand new fryer costs around $7,000, and our flourless and vegan donuts account for around 1% of overall sales, so it wouldn’t be the most sound investment for us. Besides, we’ll never be able to guarantee that there isn’t a risk of cross-contamination.
Do your donuts contain nuts? Our base donuts do not contain any nuts, but often times we do use nuts in our toppings. Simply put, we are not a nut free facility.
Who does your photography? Most of the professional photography that you seen on our website and sometimes our on Instagram is done by our friend Christopher Mongeau - he's amazing and you should check him out and work with him.
Why do you sometimes have a line? Like every other commercial building, we have legal capacity determined by the fire department, which is 50 people. We respect fire laws and will continue to abide by them. That being said, on an average day 700 people visit our shop. This means that if more than 50 people show up at once, there's a line. Our menu changes monthly, so some folks may have questions when they get up to the counter. We're in the business of making donuts and providing exceptional service, so we'll happily answer any questions and will never rush anyone out the door. Some customers get to the counter and know what they want, some take a little bit longer - we're okay with this as we appreciate anyone who walks through our doors.
Why aren't all of your boxes pre-built the night before? We pre-build as many as we can, but at this point (after our renovation), we’re maximizing our space to the best of our ability. Besides, we go through 500+ per day, so sometimes they’re made in the moment.
Who does all of your social media? The owners do! While we don't have the time to respond to every comment, we do read every single one. We will never outsource our social media because we believe in connecting with our audience authentically. The only thing we outsource is our SEO/AdWords, and we're very happy with the company we work with.
Why haven't you responded to my Instagram DM? If we aren't following you or haven't had a prior conversation via IG DM, then we won't receive a notification and your message will end up in requests. At the time of writing, we have about 75,000 followers - that's a lot of potential DMs. If you want to guarantee that we'll see your message, there's a contact form on this website, and an "email" button on our IG profile.
Your donuts are sweet. We think it would be weird if they weren't.
Your brioche dough itself isn't sweet. We're pretty open about that - see here. There's about 3g of sugar per base brioche donut, because it's all about the toppings.
Can we do a collaboration? Collaborations must be food focused to be considered.
Can I do a pop-up at your store? These must also be food focused.
Will you donate to [insert cause here]? Please understand that we get inundated with donation requests. We prioritize donations for organizations and fundraisers that align with our values. We will not do a donation based on the perceived value of the marketing and/or advertising that can come along with it, as that defeats the purpose. That being said, we do have a donation quota per month, and once we reach it, we are no longer able to commit to anything else. Please don't be offended if we don't respond.
Where else can I find your donuts? Saturday's at Coastal Roasters and Borealis Coffee. Sunday's at Stock Culinary Goods and Borealis Coffee, Wednesday through Friday at Shiru Cafe, and Wednesday through Saturday at Nolles Coffee Bar!
Where can I find your phone number? You can call us crazy, but we actually don't have one. We feel that it would take away from the core of the customer experience. Imagine being in line only to hear the phone constantly ringing, and someone having to continuously step away from serving customers to answer it. We don't like the sound of that.
Can I invest in your donut shop? No, and to be honest, we're not even sure what the purpose of that would be. But you’re welcome to Contact Us.
Can I buy your donut shop? You can Contact Us, but you won’t like how much we’d want for it.
Why don't you [insert suggestion here]? Chances are we've thought of it, but, please use our Contact Form and feel free to recommend something you don't see here - this FAQ is updated regularly, and customer inquiries definitely help with that.
Why are you obsessed with Drake? The real question is, why not?