Today we’d like to introduce you to Peter Womack.
Hi Peter, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My doughnut journey began at six years old. I was watching a cooking show on Discover. I had never dreamed of cooking or baking until that moment. I thought I wanted to be in business. Making real money! But watching that show started something for me. I didn’t know how or when but I knew kitchens were in my future. By the time I made my first doughnut – it all made sense.
In 2013 I joined a good friend of mine at Do-Rite Donuts in Chicago, one of the first gourmet donut shops. I worked in every position there from manning the counter on crazy $10,000 national donut days, to running around town setting up pop ups at farmer’s markets and the train station, along with routine deliveries for corporate clients. It was kinda like the training montage in Rocky except more donuts.
Eventually I wanted to know how the sausage was made. Or in this case, the donut obviously. So I moved myself into the kitchen to learn everything I could about creating delicious gourmet doughnuts.
After my grandmother Lola died in 2014 I had a change of heart. I went into real estate. It was a weird move. I missed donuts. So the whole selling property thing didn’t work out. But it led me to somewhere else. Los Angeles.
I moved there in 2018 with a plan to open my own doughnut shop.
While saving up for it I worked at some great LA restaurants such as Wurstkuche, Love & Salt, and Roberta’s. I learned a lot from each and very grateful of my opportunities at those places.
Like everyone, the pandemic halted my plans. I moved back to Chicago in June 2020 to help my friend start his new brick and mortar shop – Beacon Doughnuts. It was exciting to be there building something from the ground up as Beacon blew up on TikTok and the day to day running of the operation was a very rewarding graft. Finally one year later, I moved back to LA. And the experience had me primed for the next step.
Lola’s Doughnuts – named for my grandmother, was born.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Someone smart said “everyone’s got a plan until they get punched in the mouth” and I’ve been ducking and weaving since the first bell.
From kitchens with bad electrical work to Zelle phising scams to owning a business in a time of record high inflation – sometimes it seems like there’s a new obstacle every day of the week.
But nothing great every runs smooth and you take the ups with the downs and try to stay focused on the learnings and what my grandmother always said: preparation is the enemy of defeat.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I specialize in artisan doughnuts.
Every day I get up in the wee hours of the morning between 1am-4am (no social life for me!) to make doughnuts fresh. I make everything from scratch by hand from the dough to the fillings to the hand-diced apple for my Apple Fritter. I take a lot of pride in the fact that I do all of this solo, hand picking the freshest produce to create my own recipes especially for you!
Any big plans?
Four years ago all of this seemed impossible. I’m trying to enjoy the ride.
Pricing:
- Single Doughnuts $3.50-$4.50
- Half Dozen $22.95
- Dozen $42.95
- Wholesale Dozens $23.00
- Doughnut Wall Rental $150
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lolasdoughnuts.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lolasdoughnuts/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lolas-Doughnuts-109622995081119
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/lolas-doughnuts-los-angeles
