New Pinkbox is tailor-made for those Instagram moments

How excited are people about the newest Pinkbox Doughnuts?

The new shop, at 3990 E. Sunset Road, will open with festivities at 9 a.m. Saturday. But Friday night, when workers removed a piece of temporary fencing, vehicles started lining up in the drive-thru lane. A manager ran out to tell the drivers the opening was more than a week away and to give them free doughnuts employees had made in training. Because, well, that’s the Pinkbox way.

The shop, at Annie Oakley Drive on the border of Las Vegas and Henderson, is the fourth for the company owned by Stephen and Judith Siegel. One way it’s different is the hefty component of mostly pink graphic elements to provide those Instagram moments. Stephen Siegel said they broke out graphics when they opened at 9435 W. Tropicana Ave. in 2019.

“Tropicana was 1.0,” he said. “This is 2.0, and we’re going to keep going up. We want to have the ‘wow’ factor. We have the ‘wow’ doughnuts, and we want to have the ‘wow’ experience.”

Siegel said elements that encourage social-media posting aid a business’ marketing.

“It’s really about social media and exposure,” he said.

Then again, it’s something the business can’t control. Siegel said the secret is providing a level of customer service that makes posters happy.

“It’s about training, training, training,” he said. “And then when you’re done, you train again.”

It’s also about smiles, and the patience required to sometimes explain many of the 70 varieties of doughnuts available at any one time to those who may be overwhelmed by the glass case. Employees don’t answer phones during service hours, so they’re not drawn away from a customer in the store. Most FAQs are answered on the recorded message, and voicemails are periodically checked, and returned when warranted. And they said they make it a point to listen to customers.

“Customers teach us,” Judith Siegel said.

The couple said they didn’t create new doughnut varieties for the fourth store because they’re always dreaming up looks and flavors, such as Be Well, the masked doughnut they introduced early in the pandemic. They have 250 varieties in their library; the April doughnut of the month is banana puddin,’ a banana cake doughnut topped with whip, banana pudding, graham-cracker crumbs and a Nilla wafer. Stephen Siegel dreams up the new doughnuts.

“We always try to be fresh and new,” Judith Siegel said.

They stressed that while the doughnuts are considered “gourmet” quality they don’t come with gourmet prices, with none being more than $3. Three shifts of employees produce doughnuts around the clock.

The new store also debuts their new coffee line, for which they tasted 100 combinations before settling on their coffee and espresso. And the line brings another innovation: Any hot or cold drink can be ordered “pinky-style,” which adds pink whip, sprinkles, pink-velvet cake crumbs and a pink Peewee, a round mini-doughnut.

And then there’s the new equipment, out of view of the customer. Instead of someone rolling the dough by hand, it’s now put through a “sheeter.” Another machine cuts the doughnuts before a conveyor sends them through a proofer, fryer and glazer, processes that all used to be done by hand. The new machinery can make 400 dozen doughnuts per hour, enabling them to take larger orders and for the store to act as a commissary for its sisters. A Strip presence, including kiosks, is in their near future.

And they’re committed to community service. The Siegels hope to arrange tours for school kids. And since the beginning of the pandemic they’ve given 30,000 doughnuts to first-responders, watching as the definition has morphed.

“Everyone,” Stephen Siegel quipped, “became a first-responder overnight.”

Contact Heidi Knapp Rinella at Hrinella@reviewjournal.com. Follow @HKRinella on Twitter.