It was mostly business as usual for New Kensington’s Donut Connection on its last day of service.
Around noon Tuesday the drive-thru saw a steady stream of cars and a few mingling eat-in customers. Dozen-sized boxes were filled with frosted and glazed doughnuts.
Franchise owner Gayatri Patel said the shop’s final day of business had been busy since opening at 5 a.m, as usual.
Gayatri and her husband, Rakesh Patel, bought the franchise along Tarentum Bridge Road in 2023, but missed the deadline to renew their lease with Riverview Plaza, where the shop sits.
She said the couple originally entered into a two-and-a-half-year lease with an option to renew for another five years. The lease required them to submit renewal notice 180 days prior to its end.
Gayatri said they tried to remedy the situation by calling the owners of the plaza after realizing what happened, but the plaza owners were unwilling to work with them.
Representatives of Madison Acquisitions, parent company of plaza owner 100 Riverview LP, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Gayatri said she wished they had more notice about re-signing the lease.
“They should warn us … if by mistake your tenant forgot about it,” she said.
Judy Richards, 81, of Springdale sat under a window table in the shop Tuesday folding doughnut boxes. She said she patronizes the shop almost daily.
It’s the kindness of the staff and the social regulars that made visiting part of her routine.
“The company is very good,” she said. “We made a lot of new friends here.”
When she heard the closure news, she was shocked, she said.
“I figure maybe tomorrow they’ll go ‘April Fools’,” she said.
The Patel’s are looking for a new space in the area to move the franchise to, but haven’t yet found one, Gayatri said.
“(Customers) are hoping we will reopen the business,” she said.
Richards and another regular, Bill Pacek, 73, of Tarentum, agreed they would follow the franchise to a new location if one is found.
“We’re just going to miss them, we hope they’re going to open somewhere soon,” Richards said.
Until then, Pacek said, he’ll be making his coffee at home.
“I come everyday. … I like these people, I don’t want to give someone else my money,” he said. “Their coffee is really good and its (price is) reasonable, not like Starbucks.”