While deployed with the Army in Afghanistan, Mark Parker began exploring career options for after his military retirement. “He said, ‘I think I want to be a Chick-fil-A operator,’” shares Mark’s wife Michelle. “We went through the highly competitive process for over a year and through that, we met the former owners of Belair Donuts and Coffee Corner. In 2019, we bought a donut shop!” The couple has been serving up sweet and savory treats at both locations, in Augusta and Grovetown, ever since.
The delightful menu is full of items made fresh daily. It includes a variety of cake and yeast doughnut options, with seasonal flavors making short-term appearances, and their signature crème brulée donut, which has a homemade crème brulée filling and is topped with caramelized sugar. Other sweet treats offered include crodo, which is a glazed croissant, and apple fritters. On the savory side, customers enjoy seven types of water-boiled bagels and kolaches made of a sausage wrapped in a Danish dough, which come in three flavors spicy, cheese, and plain.
This fall, the Parkers worked with artist Cole Phail, owner of Master Productions, to create a mural for the side of their Augusta location. “Cole was able to take our words and ideas and make them come to life,” shares Michelle. “It was awesome working with him. He was very kind, patient, humble, and understanding of my request to help paint. I'm not an artist, but I used to love coloring books when I was a little girl, so Cole spent many hours creating the mural on the computer first. Then he sketched the entire mural in charcoal and he let me paint the less complicated areas. It was really a fun process.”
The mural is full of hidden treasures for patrons to discover. “Our goal was to debut our new logo designed by Amy D. Kilpatrick, owner of Design Worxs and create a fun experience for our community in our drive-thru,” explains Mark. “We wanted to include some of our Army life experiences in the mural and Cole was able to make our ideas come to fruition with the additional accents from our favorite duty stations of Hawaii, Korea, and Germany. We also tried to represent some of our frequent customers and signature products in the mural.”
The last four years have been a fun adventure and Michelle’s favorite part… creating sweet experiences. “I love having the opportunity to make our customers’ day sweeter,” she says. “I love the look on a child’s face when they get a donut with rainbow sprinkles and I also love when an adult grabs their hot cup of coffee, catches a whiff of it, and a smile spreads across their face.”
Belair Donuts and Coffee Corner is a locally and veteran owned small business with two locations. The Augusta shop, located at 4045 Jimmie Dyess Pkwy Suite 106 (706-364-6522), is open Monday-Saturday 5am-1pm, Sunday 6am-1pm. The Grovetown shop, located at 720 E Robinson Ave (706-869-5091), is open Monday-Friday 5:30am-1pm, Saturday & Sunday 6am-1pm. To peruse the menu or to place large custom orders, visit belairdonuts.com. Please allow a minimum of twenty-four hours’ notice when placing large orders.
