BY: VOICE-TRIBUNE
PHOTOS: Hi-Hive Doughnuts & Matt Johnson
Louisville’s first and only female-owned doughnut shop and food truck establishment re-opened its storefront location last month. Below, self-professed “Ladies of the Morning” and owners Annie Harlow and Leslie Wilson share their business story with VOICE-TRIBUNE and talk about their sidekick catering partner, Shelby. How did your business begin?
Our very first event was The Flea Off Market in April of 2013. We started out in a tent, bringing doughnuts, glazes and toppings to events throughout the city. After two years of working out of a tent, we bought our food truck, Shelby. We worked out of “her” for two more years. This allowed for us to grow quite a lot. Then in January of 2017 we got our first store front in Butchertown. We stayed at this location till Dec 2022. Now we have moved to the Douglass Loop. We currently still do catering and prepaid events with Shelby. Shelby loves weddings!
Tell us about your menu and offerings.
In addition to a build-your-own-doughnut bar, we offer doughnut staples such as long johns and old fashioneds. We also have daily vegan doughnut selections.
We like to call ourselves a doughnuttery—as all things we make are doughnut-related. We also make doughnut sandwiches such as the buttermilk fried chicken doughnut sandwich with our homemade smackdown sauce; our breakfast doughnut sandwich that is served with a farm fresh egg, applewood smoked bacon, aged white cheddar, and Duke’s mayo. We offer a punny egg in the loop (our version of toad in a hole), and gravy dippers (doughnut holes with Leslie’s grandma’s sausage gravy).
What separates your business from others?
We are local and female-owned. We grew up in the Highlands and are super stoked to be planting roots here as a community influenced business. We have an interesting start. With no previous baking experience we have created our dream job from just that, a dream. We pride ourselves on using fresh whole ingredients. Supporting local farmers and other local businesses, especially female [owned], wherever we can. All our doughnuts and glazes are made from scratch using whole ingredients. To quote This is Spinal Tap, we like to go to 11. We just created a coffee program that is true to us. We will be featuring glazed lattes, and an assortment of other drinks that are on brand with who we are. Why go to 10, when you can go to 11?
How can our readers find/enjoy your doughnuts?
Our new location is at 1940 Harvard Drive in the Douglass Loop and will open the second week of February. In addition, your readers can follow us on Instagram, facebook, and tiktok at @hifivedoughnuts.
Tell us about your seasonal products. Are there any special spring offerings?We feature monthly case doughnuts that reflect the time of year and or current events. For example, we will have our always popular red velvet cake doughnut and chocolate noir heart doughnuts for Valentine's Day. For St. Patrick’s Day, we will of course feature green goodies, and possibly a stout favorite. We will be featuring a cherry Mile Wide Beer Co. cordial — Mile Wide Frute Brute pastry cream with chocolate glaze. For Easter, we will feature our annual carrot cake doughnut with actual carrot cake and cream cheese glaze and fun Easter egg decorated doughnuts.
What are your most popular items?
Our bourbon caramel and applewood smoked bacon doughnut has always been a favorite among our patrons. The buttermilk fried chicken doughnut sandwich has been featured on the travel channel, the cooking channel and on multiple recognizable platforms across the US. However, if you ask our pops, the sour cream old fashioned and the breakfast doughnut sandwich are the real winners.
