Beaunuts

About 50 percent of the people who come in to Beaunuts ask how to pronounce the name, according to co-owner Ernie LaBrecque. LaBrecque said he needed a name quickly and his logo design (a donut with a mustache), southern centric menu and the definition of ‘beau’ helped things come together.

“It gives us a reason to explain and engage with [customers] even if they don’t know what it means or why: beau is basically a southern belle’s boyfriend so it opens up those possibilities,” LaBrecque said. “Lots of puns. I don’t know if you can tell but I love puns … we have ‘combeaus’, it’s pretty obnoxious actually.”

LaBrecque is a fine dining chef who, along with his wife, K.B., a social worker, started Beaunuts Buttermilk Donuts after he was furloughed last March. LaBrecque had been tweaking his grandmother’s biscuit recipe and developing it into pastry dough for a few years, and he used to feed the desserts to his staff.  

With the Beaunuts recipe in tow, LaBrecque called some friends about doing a pop-up event and it took off from there.

“Getting furloughed from your job [is a] pretty good motivation to get it nailed down and get it figured out. The week I was furloughed, we did our first pop up at the Roosevelt in Richmond,” LaBrecque said, “we sold 1600 donuts in two days and we haven’t stopped since then. We were doing pop ups, then we got our food truck, and we were doing one to two, sometimes three of those a week.” 

After having successful pop-ups at Cedar Heart Market, Hardywood @ West Creek and the Trey Songz mural unveiling, the LaBrecques eventually opened a brick and mortar store in Petersburg in January. The Southern style menu offers customizable donuts, fried hot dogs, cajun shrimp rolls, breakfast sandwiches and more; donut specialties change every week (except banana pudding, which is a customer favorite) and they’re closed on Tuesdays with a new menu starting on Wednesdays.

LaBrecque said they never thought they’d get the opportunity to open their own business but when they moved in and decided to do so, it was easy for them to tailor their business to the community. Because of this, LaBrecque said they don’t want to step on anyone’s toes and he prefers working in a neighborhood where he has a good relationship with all the businesses.

“We don’t serve soft drinks because Boppers [Malt Shop] does homemade, we don’t … smoke meats here … because next door [Ta Bon Fry and Southern Eats] is a great barbecue place, we don’t open for dinner because we don’t wanna pull business away from all the great restaurants that we love down here that do dinner,” LaBrecque said. “We close on Tuesdays because everybody else closes on Mondays so we wanna be closed on the day when everybody’s … getting started for their week. We don’t do any other pastries because we love Buttermilk [Bake Shop] and we don’t wanna step on their toes, we didn’t apply for a full liquor license, we’re only doing beer because there’s great bars around and we don’t wanna pull from that so we’re really big on that.”

LaBrecque loves cross promotion between the businesses and said most of the local business owners come in and get donuts. He said the area could use more restaurants and businesses to give people more reasons to be down there, and more foot traffic will benefit everyone.

LaBrecque and his wife are learning as they go along with their business and have weekly goals of seeing how much they can make, staying within that and focusing on what they can do for their staff. Their focus right now is on paying bills and providing a place for people to sit down and grab a guitar if they feel like jamming. 

“Longterm goal … is just to stay open and keep making people happy with fun donuts and to provide a bright atmosphere,” LaBrecque said, “someplace where people can go and they can sit in a comfy chair and read a book for a couple hours and nobody’s gonna bother them.”

The restaurant has also become a place for the less fortunate, according to LaBrecque, who come in daily to talk and eat.

With the Beaunut already under his belt, LaBrecque was coy about his next culinary invention but said he had a few ideas floating around and it would be a lunch/dinner concept. The couple will continue their Friday pop-ups and taco nights, and there are plans for a tomato sandwich night this summer (LaBrecque’s favorite) and a fry night with cheese fry options and different types of fries.

LaBrecque said they like being a part of the community and turning it into their home, and though he mentioned having other restaurant concepts down the road, he just wants people to get to know them.

“I want people to get to know us and to get to know my cooking so that they trust me, that way when I open my 40-seat fine dining down here,” LaBrecque said, “and I try to charge you $35 for a plate of food, you’ll go ‘Alright he made some pretty good donuts, we’ll give it a shot’.”

Beaunuts is located at 404 N Sycamore Street and open Monday-Sunday (closed Tuesdays) 7:30 to 3. Find out more on Facebook, Instagram and their official website.