A TASTE OF PORT ST. LUCIE
POPULAR DONUT STORE
OPENS IN PORT ST. LUCIE
Dixie Cream has been in SLC since 1950s
Doughnut madness struck Port St. Lucie during the
grand opening of Dixie Cream Donuts, eager customers
holding on with lip-smacking anticipation for a
taste of the sweet delicacies freshly made on the premises.
The new store served some 500 people on that Dec. 14
morning. Some customers waited for up to two hours with a
line a block long outside the shop at 1364 S.W. Bayshore Blvd.
“That was crazy, I thought I was going to die,” recalled
Sarah Callis, partner and manager of the shop. While she
and employees filled orders as fast as they could, customers
waited patiently. They’d been waiting for weeks since the announcement
of the store’s opening.
“It was a wonderful nightmare,” Callis adds. She didn’t
expect such a large turnout. Of the thousands of doughnuts
prepared, the shelves were down to just the glazed variety in
less than three hours.
“It was insane for the first two weeks,” Callis says. “We
ED DRONDOSKI PHOTOS
were very busy.” The holidays slowed things down a bit,
but business picked up and regulars continue to show up.
“People are coming in and making it their routine, adding
something to their early-morning schedule.”
Callis has worked at Dixie Cream for 14 years, starting as
a cashier and eventually moving up from trainer to manager
of the Fort Pierce store before becoming manager in Port St.
Lucie. Becky Babcock succeeded her in Fort Pierce.
Normally, the Fort Pierce store serves about 160 to 190
people a day. Port St. Lucie picks up more customers on
the weekend with about 200 a day, but the Fort Pierce shop
remains a bigger draw on a daily basis for two reasons: It is
larger, and it has been a landmark at 3210 Orange Ave. for
more than 50 years.
Dixie Cream Donuts is a Tulsa-based franchise that was
founded in 1929. The Fort Pierce Dixie Cream first opened on
Delaware Avenue in the 1950s and later moved to the Orange
22 Port St. Lucie Magazine
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The new Dixie Cream Donuts store has been a confectionary sensation in Port St. Lucie since opening Dec. 14.
BY JERRY SHAW