LaMar's Donuts and Coffee is a chain of gourmet, artisan, handmade doughnut and specialty handcrafted coffee beverages. It was founded in Kansas City, Missouri, and headquartered in Denver, Colorado. LaMar's has 26 stores in five states—Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska—and plans to expand to others. LaMar's Donuts has won newspaper readers' poll awards for best doughnuts in several of the cities where they have stores. According to the LaMar's website, the famed Zagat Survey, the New York City-based namer of premier dining spots nationwide, described LaMar's Donuts as "extraordinary; fit for kings".
History
In 1960, founder Ray LaMar opened a donut shop in Midtown Kansas City in a converted gas station on Linwood Boulevard. He made the donuts homemade, mixing the dough and rolling, and then cutting. Then he would deep-fry them. The business experienced much success and by 1990, Mr. Lamar and his wife decided to franchise the business. LaMar's still makes all of the donuts the same way by hand and fresh every day. It moved from the old gas station to a nice building a block over from the original. The shop was open from then until May 2005. The business has since relocated and is currently headquartered in Denver, Colorado. “Simply a Better Donut” is company's advertising tagline.
Products
LaMar's offers over 100 varieties of donuts, including Ray's Original Glazed Donuts, cake donuts, donut holes and specialties including LaMar's Bars, Bizmarks and old fashioned sour cream donuts. Each donut is made fresh by hand every day. LaMar's slow roasts their coffee beans locally in Denver and ships to stores within 48 hours. Their coffee drinks include cappuccinos, lattes and iced espresso-based beverages as well as blended espresso-based drinks. LaMar's Donuts also offers a full line of blended fruit smoothies called LaFrappés.
Media recognition
The donuts made by LaMar's have been heralded as “simply the best” by numerous national media sources including, NBC's Jay Leno, The New Yorker, Food Network and the Zagat Survey. Jay Leno dubbed Ray the King of Donuts. They have also landed on many awards lists, and just a few of those include:
In a blind taste test conducted in November 2002, nine Denver police officers and firefighters chose LaMar's Donuts over Krispy Kreme's. This not only gained local media attention but also established LaMar's as a big player in the competitive donut market. Over the years LaMar's has constantly raised consumers’ expectations for a donut company. For National Donut Day in 2017 they were the first to deliver donuts via air drone, making drops around Denver to the mayor, police, firefighters and community members. This event earned 450 media placements both locally and nationally, including features in all four Denver TV stations, Denver Business Journal, Huffington Post, ABC News and Mashable.
Partnerships
LaMar's Donuts values and stresses the importance of being a part of local communities where they have locations, and participates in events like the annual Whiskey and Donuts festival in Denver. In 2018, LaMar's started a tradition by making connections with local police officers to sponsor events on National Coffee with a Cop Day. This event brings police officers and community members together to discuss issues and learn more about each other over a hot cup of coffee. As further support for local communities, LaMar's has partnered since 2009 with The Salvation Army to donate proceeds from the week of National Donut Day to the organization's youth services. They also mark this holiday by educating the community about The Salvation Army's program and how people can help or contribute to their cause.
