In 1970 you could walk down College Avenue in the early morning hours and the main thing permeating the air was the smell of wonderful fresh doughnuts coming from a shop known as Sputnuts. It was so alluring that you might have pictured yourself as one of those cartoon characters floating on air as the smell waves wafted into your nostrils, and your body involuntarily sought out the source of that aroma.
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| Carol Lee Donuts 133 College Avenue |
You can thank the Kidd family that started the business just one year before that, especially Mr. Kidd who drove from Roanoke and often stayed overnight because he would be open until midnight and reopen at 6 a.m. The name would appear in local ads as "The Spudnut Shop" but everyone just knew it as Spudnuts, and loved the flavor of those potato flour delicacies.
Within a couple of years or so the shop was renamed Carol Lee Donuts and continued their reign on College Avenue for about 3 decades. Today the sight is a Chinese food restaurant called the Happy Wok, but you can still find Carol Lee's way up at 1414 North Main Street.
Oh, this brings back memories! That could be a photo of me in my navy blue L.L. Bean down jacket buying maple glazed doughnuts at Spudnuts - my favorite! Thank you so much for posting this, Dennis!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Anne ... you sure that's NOT you? I should have asked readers here what their favorites were. The maple glazed were awesome and I also like the cinnamon and sugar cake donuts myself.
ReplyDeleteWe were given an apple fritter one day- delicious! and I love how inexpensive they are + the coffee !!
ReplyDeleteThe girls are Julie Jenrette and Janice Lafon. That was an ad for the blacksburg highschool yearbook. Probably, 70' or 71'.
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