LISBON — Two years ago, Shelby and Nels Omdal eyed the former Something Fishy on Lisbon Street for a potential new Frosty’s Donuts.
She wanted to go for it. He wanted to wait.
The building sat empty for a while, and this winter, they finally agreed: the time for doughnuts was now.
After extensive renovations and repairs — new walls, kitchen, floors, roof and pipes, after they suddenly burst — the fifth location in the Brunswick-based chain opened two weeks ago.
“There’s only one problem with this place, one problem,” said Debra Malone, sitting down with a coconut doughnut and coffee on Tuesday morning. “It’s within walking distance of my home.”
It’s open from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m., seven days a week. Business has been great so far, Shelby Omdal, 37, said. Any concerns that the new location might draw sales away from the original site in Brunswick have melted away.
The chalet-look to the building’s exterior, good parking and steady traffic on Route 196 immediately appealed to her. The town did, too.
“Lisbon is a great town to invest in right now,” she said. “There are two or three businesses that we heard of moving in, and that’s just little things we’ve heard.”
Look for Moxie-glazed doughnuts next month as a tie-in to the Moxie Festival with other sweet tie-ins possibly to follow.
The Brunswick couple bought Frosty’s from its founders in 2011 after it closed briefly. They kept the original recipes, kept everything handmade and started with just themselves as employees.
“That’s been our biggest thing is consistency,” Nels Omdal, 38, said.
They’ve grown to five locations — others are in Freeport, Bath and Gardiner — and, soon, 55 employees.
All of the baking is done each morning in Brunswick and trucked to the shops and roughly 20 Hannafords from Lewiston-Auburn to South Berwick. They make, on average, between 5,000 and 8,000 doughnuts a day. During the summer months, with doughnut-loving tourists, that jumps to between 10,000 and 12,000.
Early on, Shelby Omdal said they decided to taste-test a lot of the competition, even traveling to trendy Voodoo Doughnuts in the West.
“We made a decision: We were not going to go down that road,” Nels Omdal said. “We’re just going to keep it old school and traditional.”
They’ve added some seasonal flavors, like a carrot cake doughnut, and stayed true to the chocolate, plain, sugared and coconut classics. Frosty’s glazed twist is their No. 1 best seller.
Shelby and Nels, who have three young children, step in day-to-day where they’re needed. Except, more recently, when it comes to taste-testing.
“It’s trouble,” he said. “We taste-tested for three years, every day … “
Time to let someone else do that for a while.
She has a few more sites in mind to expand; he’d rather take a slower approach.
Shelby Omdal said she isn’t concerned with Krispy Kreme’s move into Maine.
“There is a different product, they’re a different market,” she said.
She sees Frosty’s as more Main Street, more part of whatever community it’s in.
“Our business models, I think, vary distinctly.”
Frosty’s was founded by Bob and June Frost in 1965. After the Omdals bought and reopened it, Shelby said they heard from many customers who had always stopped in after a haircut, or with a grandparent, or at certain milestones.
“Everyone has a Frosty’s story,” she said.
Nels, too. Several years ago, a little after 5 a.m., a man walked into the Brunswick store looking to grab a dozen doughnuts.
“He said, ‘How are you? I’m Angus King,'” Nels Omdal said. The shop owner shook his hand and introduced himself in return.
Nels, who has lived in Colorado and the West Coast, had no idea who King, the former Maine governor, now-U.S. senator, was.
“(He said,) ‘I’ve decided last night and I’m going to announce it today to the public, I’m going to run for senator,'” Nels Omdal said. “I went into the back, ‘Some guy, Angus King, told me he was going to run for senator.'”
Kitchen staff recognized the name immediately and popped right out.
kskelton@sunjournal.com
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