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Food

At diet-busting Hurts Donut in Frisco, 'people buy doughnuts faster than we can make them'

Hurts Donut, a shop that people wait in line for, produces 5,000 to 8,000 doughnuts a day....
Hurts Donut, a shop that people wait in line for, produces 5,000 to 8,000 doughnuts a day. They're open 24 hours a day.(Vernon Bryant / Staff Photographer)

Kas and Tim Clegg opened their first doughnut shop without any experience making doughnuts. Like, none: They watched some YouTube videos then "didn't make a single doughnut until 12 hours before we opened," Kas Clegg says of the first Hurts Donut, located in Missouri.

Bad idea, right? They drained their personal bank account down to $6, Clegg recalls, then managed to build a cult-followed doughnut brand in just three years. The 11th Hurts Donut in the U.S. opened at 5 a.m. Jan. 25 in Frisco.

About 50 people camped out overnight on Jan. 24 for their "oversized, specialty doughnuts," as Clegg explains them.

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The shop's staff of 80 people made 10,000 to 15,000 doughnuts for the Frisco shop's opening. That's a lot of doughnuts.

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The only reason the Cleggs opened a doughnut shop in the first place was to support Clegg's sweet tooth.

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"My husband jokes that we started this doughnut company because it's cheaper to open a doughnut shop than to support my doughnut habits. I was eating a half-dozen doughnuts a day," she says. She still eats at least one Hurts Donut a day. "Quality control," she jokes.

The best-selling doughnut is The Jesus (pronounced with a soft J): a cinnamon sugar doughnut with caramel drizzle. Hurts is a check-your-diet-at-the-door place, as some of the other big sellers are piled with Andes Mints, peanut butter cups or cotton candy.

"People buy doughnuts faster than we can make them," Clegg says.

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At the time of the Frisco opening, only full-sized doughnuts will be for sale. But eventually, its franchisors (who are the Clegg's family members, Keith and Cheryl Selby of Frisco), will sell doughnut holes. There's one specialty doughnut hole that sounds worth waiting for: The Fire in the hole is a doughnut hole filled with sweet cream cheese and jalapeno, topped with Sriracha glaze.

Eventually, the shop will also sell doughnut milkshakes.

Customers pick any doughnut and it'll be made into a milkshake served with a doughnut on top, with a straw through the hole. Whoa.

The company sells 70 varieties of doughnuts. It's open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

"We say we're open 25 hours a day, 8 days a week just to show our dedication to our guests. We don't even close on Christmas," the owner says.

Hurts Donut is located at 3288 Main St., Frisco, and is expected to open at 5 a.m. Jan. 25. Details here.

Look inside the buzzy new doughnut shop:

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How do they make their doughnuts? It starts with an "angry toss" into the icing: