Lehi Bakery was founded in 1969 by Arden Tuckett. His son, Brent, worked at the bakery growing up, and he and his wife Valerie, took it over in 1980. Originally, Lehi Bakery was primarily a bread shop, but it gradually became more of a doughnut shop. In 1989, Brent and Valerie came across a little square doughnut cutter at a yard sale. They started making square doughnuts for fun, and they just kept selling. Eventually, they changed the awning to say ‘Home of the Square doughnuts.’ Today, Lehi Bakery sells over a million square doughnuts a year.
In 2018, after decades of early mornings, Brent and Valerie wanted to retire, and David and Danielle Doty jumped on the opportunity to buy the bakery they loved visiting with their family. Their goals were to keep the community and family values while expanding Lehi Bakery’s reach, because they believe in the products and want to grow Lehi Bakery’s great reputation. David said, “It was a big change. I went from 9 to 5 in an office to going in at midnight and coming home at 9 a.m., covered in flour and oil.”
The Dotys are growing Lehi Bakery’s future by expanding the original location and adding new ones. “It used to be that if you didn’t show up by 10 a.m., the doughnuts were probably sold out. So we added fryers, mixers, and machines to help us process faster.” The extra equipment meant the Dotys ran into a space issue with their 100-year-old, 2,000-square-foot bakery. In 2023, they finished construction on an expansion that brought the bakery to 7,200 feet, and in 2024, they added a drive-through location in Saratoga Springs. Soon, the Dotys are opening Lehi Bakeries in Highland, Spanish Fork, and Heber. David says they’ve pursued expansion for two reasons: “One, expansion has let us grow our employees into new roles, rather than have them leave when they have nowhere to grow. Two, if you have something really good, you want to share that with as many people as possible.” It’s important to the Dotys to expand in a high quality way. “We’re doing everything in our power to maintain and improve as we expand—better customer experience, better product consistency, better menus, great staff. In Highland, we’re launching from-scratch all-natural doughnuts. I think they’ll rival any in the country.”
Lehi Bakery has won the best in state bakery award for the last two years. The Dotys’ goal for Lehi Bakery is to stay in the conversation for the best doughnut shop in the country, and to not get complacent just because they’re winning awards and getting great feedback from the community. They want to push the envelope and be the best of the best. Their focus on serving the community, evidenced by serving doughnuts at the Lehi Rodeo, delivering free doughnut carts to elementary schools, bakery tours, and custom stickers and coloring pages they stock in the bakery for kids, shows their commitment to remaining true to the iconic 56-year-old institution.
Under the ownership of David and Danielle Doty, Lehi Bakery is continuing its legacy, building for the future while embracing the past. With a rich history in family-owned business and community-focused values, Lehi Bakery’s future is guaranteed to be sweet. David said, “It has just been the joy of a lifetime. I’ve loved every minute of it.”
"If you have something really good, you want to share that with as many people as possible."