Randy’s Donuts doing record business at 1st Las Vegas shop

At the new Randy’s Donuts, it’s dollars for doughnuts — at a record rate.

The doughnutier, famed for its original Los Angeles store with a giant doughnut on the roof, opened its first Las Vegas location on Tuesday on South Rainbow Boulevard. Since then, the shop has moved more than 10,000 doughnuts a day, opening at 5:30 a.m. and selling out by 6 or 7 p.m.

The store was supposed to be open 24 hours; the sellouts are the first in the company’s 70-year history.

“We are selling an ungodly amount of doughnuts. The demand is so unbelievable, and we’ve probably got 25 cars in line and 25 people in the store,” Randy’s owner Mark Kelegian said from outside the Vegas shop. “We’re very appreciative. We feel the love.”

Kelegian said the shop employs 35 people. Just 15 of those staffers are responsible for making 10,000-plus doughnuts a day — by hand.

“We’re not a factory. It’s a lot easier to crank out 10,000 or 15,000 doughnuts if you’re using a machine,” Kelegian said. “It takes a lot longer by hand.”

Kelegian estimated it would be seven days to two weeks for the store to be open 24 hours at the current levels of doughnut production. Until then, doughnuts will be offered until sell out.

More shops in Vegas

The doughnut demandemonium could just be starting in Vegas.

In an exclusive discussion with the Review-Journal, Kelegian identified three more planned Randy’s: at Cameron Street and Blue Diamond Road, at Hacienda Avenue and Fort Apache Road, and on Charleston Boulevard in Summerlin. Two other locations that Kelegian declined to identify are in the works. “They will blow everyone’s minds,” he said.

What’s more, Kelegian said he is in discussions with Strip casinos to bring Randy’s on property. He declined to name the casinos, but “everybody is hitting us up.”

Big sign; eating, not images

Back at the new shop, it will be about two months before the signature sign is installed, Kelegian said. The sign will feature two poles holding up a giant doughnut, with coffee cups between the poles. The sign will rise about 33 feet. “Our goal is to get as much exposure as we can for our doughnut,” Kelegian said.

In the last several years, many doughnut purveyors have enthusiastically celebrated wretched excess, abusing their innocent products with ostentatious (or ostentatiously weird) toppings that are often just silly, and made more for Instagram than flavorful eating. Randy’s, on the other hand, celebrates the standards.

“You want to put on lobster, wagyu beef, Cap’n Crunch? We have found over the years that 90 percent of the doughnuts people are buying are our classic doughnuts. It’s like pizza and burgers. If you’re dough isn’t any good, who cares? If your patty is not good beef, they’re not coming back. Your doughnut itself has to be great.”

And unlike Instagram doughnuts, Randy’s are still priced at $1.60-$3.

Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ItsJLW on Twitter.