A U.S. flag stands tall amid a plastic statue of iced donuts atop a coffee maker.
Next to the coffee pot, a sign shouts, “NOTICE” in big white letters on a red background. In smaller type, the sign announces, “This place is politically incorrect. We say Merry Christmas, God Bless America. We salute our flag and give thanks to our troops…” The remainder of the sign’s message on this day is obscured by a rack stacked full of yellow and white coffee mugs for use by counter customers.
There is almost always someone sipping coffee at the Jolly Pirate counter.
And all of the workers know the regulars’ names and orders by heart. Addie Murphy also knows their preferences, such as spoon or no spoon for cream, and how much coffee they like in their cup.
“Hal likes the white cup because he thinks the yellow cup is girly. Ann likes the yellow cup,” says Murphy, a long-time Jolly Pirate Donuts employee.
Jolly Pirate, at 175 S. 30th St. in Newark, has been a destination for sweet treats and fresh coffee for decades. Donuts are always fresh at the shop on the border between Newark and Heath.
A “Honey Dipped” glazed donut plucked from the cooking rack is so fresh that it’s still warm and melts in your mouth.
“Think of a funnel cake,” says Rachael Disbennett, who has worked at Jolly Pirate for 20 years.
She kneads a large ball of dough on a counter in the kitchen. Customers at the front register beg for more of those fresh gems.
“I’ll take the whole stick,” a man says through the window separating the kitchen from the front counter, pointing to a wooden rod from which fresh donuts dangle. He takes another large bite of a donut Disbennett had given him.
Jolly Pirate is open 24 hours, serving fresh donuts and coffee with smiles and a quick, “What can I get for you, hun?”
The many varieties of donuts, cream-filled long johns, apple fritters and other pastries here are made from scratch within view of customers at the counter. The Newark store, celebrating 50 years of business here, is one of the last remaining Jolly Pirate stores.
The first Jolly Pirate opened in 1961 at South Hamilton Road and Fairway Boulevard in the Columbus suburb of Whitehall. The store closed in January 2016. Now there are only three Jolly Pirate locations left in Ohio: Reynoldsburg, Grove City and Newark.
There are two Jolly Pirate locations outside of Ohio, one in Huntington, West Virginia, and one in Ashland, Kentucky. The franchise was originally called Jolly Roger. Other central Ohio donut shops that once were connected to the Jolly Pirate franchise include Buckeye Donuts, Honey Dew, and Golden Donut.
How does a business that sells donuts and coffee stay open for so many years?
“We are very family oriented; we’re a big family. We’re there for each other if we need something,” Disbennett says as she cuts out circles of dough.
She has worked other jobs, but she comes back to Jolly Pirate. Not only does the place have a family feel, but a lot of the people who work there also are related to each other.
Murphy began working at Jolly Pirate in 2019 when she was 14 years old. She got the job after spending her childhood coming in with her grandma. When she was a kid, Disbennett would pick her up and carry her around the kitchen.
Murphy’s brother works at Jolly Pirate on weekends, and Disbennett’s family members also have been employed there in the past. Having worked elsewhere, Murphy says no other place has the same family feel among both the workers and the customers.
Making donuts and friends
Disbennett and Murphy squeeze past each other in the small kitchen. “Free Fallin’” by Tom Petty plays on the radio as chocolate donut batter spins in the 5-foot-tall Hobart mixer.
The mixer and the proofer, a warming chamber in which the dough rises, are original equipment from when Jolly Pirate opened in 1974. When the Hobart mixer breaks, they call retired Hobart employees to fix it, because current Hobart employees aren’t familiar with such an old appliance.
The counter bell rings, indicating another customer has entered. Murphy sets down a tray of unfilled long johns and walks to the front.
Every customer is important to the Jolly Pirate team, but what makes the shop next to the Ohio Central Railroad tracks special are the regulars who come in virtually every day for a donut and coffee. They sit at brown bar stools as they read The Advocate newspaper left on the counter for them and catch up with other regulars.
Disbennett peers from the window separating the kitchen from the front counter and waves hello to arriving customers.
“You get close to them,” she says, because some of the regulars spend hours sitting at the counter chatting. The regulars are always eager to see familiar faces and welcome new ones.
Jen Birtcher, the store manager who has worked for 10 years for owner Stephanie Quinn, says the staff has gotten to know whole families.
“We’ve watched families grow up here,” Birtcher said. “When I started, I was 23, and I’ve seen all these little kids grow up. They’re graduating now, and it just blows my mind. Then I realize, man I’m getting old! We’ve been with them through divorces, marriages, deaths – they’ve become our family.”
Workers and customers occasionally recognize that a regular hasn’t shown up in a while. Most customers come in multiple times a week and typically at the same time each week. Birtcher keeps a contact list in the back for frequent customers to write down their names and numbers.
“If we don’t see them for a couple of days, we’ll call and check in,” she says.
Maintaining friendships and giving back to the community are important to the Jolly Pirate team.
Donuts that aren’t purchased within a set period of time are taken off the shelves and donated to the Salvation Army on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Donuts that are too small or have fallen apart after coming out of the fryer are picked up by a man who feeds them to deer.
And employees sometimes give donuts to people who can’t afford them.
“I’ve seen people digging through the trash outside, and I’d rather give them a donut that costs a dollar than for them to do that,” Murphy says.
When local students bring in their latest report cards, they receive one free donut for every A, and a free dozen for all A’s. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jolly Pirate gave students a donut and a drink Monday through Friday because students weren’t able to have breakfast or lunch at school.
The pandemic didn’t shut down Jolly Pirate. The business stayed open even as many others closed. Some never reopened.
It was a hard time for the community, leaving customers unable to socialize at the Jolly Pirate counter. Improvising, customers were welcome to sit outside on the wooden bench near the building’s large windows or bring a lawn chair.
Business increases after COVID
After 50 years in business and having stayed open during COVID, Jolly Pirate has seen a big increase in the number of donuts sold since the pandemic.
When Birtcher first started at the store, the staff would make 5 pounds of Devil’s Food cake donuts. The glazed chocolate treats are so popular that they now make 15 to 20 pounds at a time.
“Same with the yeast donuts,” she says. “Max would be 55 (pounds), and now we’re doing about 100 to 120 pounds,” Birtcher says.
Baking happens twice a day – every 12 hours. The process begins between 3-4 a.m. and 3-4 p.m. every day. It takes five to eight hours for a bake, depending on the experience level of the person making the pastries.
Having two bakes a day is necessary so that the donuts are fresh and don’t run out. The long johns and apple fritters are the big hits with customers.
“We tell people to order ahead, because we never know how many people are going to come in,” Disbennett says. “We don’t care if it’s one donut; you can call and order. We are first-come, first-served.”
After baking comes the cream and jelly fillings, and the glaze or icing.
Murphy sticks a tube into each end of each cooled long john, filling them with cream. Then she spreads maple, chocolate or vanilla icing over the tops of the long johns. She makes double the number of chocolate-iced long johns, because they are the most popular compared to the others.
Murphy ices the last donut and carries the tray to the display case behind the front counter.
“Is everybody doing okay out here?” she asks the customers sipping coffee at the counter.
On weekends, especially Sundays, a line forms along the wall of windows with hungry folks wanting coffee and donuts before or after church.
Weather is a factor in the business.
“When it rains or snows, for some reason, everybody flocks here to get their comfort food, because they’re going to be inside for a few days,” Birtcher says.
And then there are the holidays – heart-shaped donuts for Valentine’s Day, donuts iced in green for St. Patrick’s Day, and then Thanksgiving and Christmas. The big holiday here, of course, is National Donut Day, which will be Friday, June 6, 2025.
The busiest day Murphy says she ever experienced was Valentine’s Day 2020, when they ran out of donuts by 10 a.m. Last Christmas, customers could receive a free donut if they brought in a donut-themed ornament for the shop’s Christmas tree, and the tree quickly filled with ornaments.
One decoration in the shop that speaks to the family feel of the place is a sign dangling from a nail near the register: “Enter as strangers, depart as friends.”
Sarah Wuellner writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.