Local business: Sydney restaurateur expands into donuts.business news

Tina and Michael Gavin bring something sweet to Sydney.

The duo opened Tina’s Old Fashioned Donuts at 12 Division Street in Sydney in late October.

Tina Gavin, 50, credits her husband, who owns and operates Gavin’s Pizza and Matcho’s Tacos in Sydney, with inspiring the business.

“I swear, he thinks of ideas in his sleep,” she said. We had fun opening a store and decided it was something we were good at.It was really his brainchild.But I love sweets so I really wanted to do it.

Gavin said she quit her full-time job to focus on donuts, but she brought her years of experience in the food service industry to the venture.

“For my first 15 years in the (pizza) business…I bartended, waitressed, cooked, books, catered, sold. I did everything,” she said. “But I had spent the last five years completing my master’s degree and was in a leadership job when I took this on. I gave up my full-time job because I thought, ‘Michael can’t just leave his bag here. I just focus on this and make it work. ”

Gavin says Tina’s offers graded treats.

“We always have 99-cent donuts, and it’s classic, plain, sugared, powdered, cinnamon, and glazed,” she said. They are all iced or sprinkled donuts, and we have indulgent donuts, often with cake-like toppings, and of course coffee, espresso, Clarks milk and juice. increase.”

Indulgent donuts, she said, include combinations like “maple bacon gluttony,” “Oreo cookie madness,” and “fruity pebble blast.”

Despite a series of delays to the opening, Gavin said Tina’s staff were enthusiastic and the community response was “ridiculously great.”

“We have staff and … they’ve been very patient and ready and have practiced a lot of batches of donuts,” she said. It’s been ~5 months…and people are ready, every time we practice here we have people stop by to see if we’re open and we’ve already given away a bunch of donuts. We have donated to the national team’s field hockey and soccer teams, local police officers, village workers and some teachers, and have received very positive feedback.”

Based in Sydney, Gavin hopes to build on that support and collaboration.

“I was born and raised here, so this is my community,” she said. “It is sad to see restaurants and small businesses closing. After the pandemic, it is a struggle for all of us.So why not help each other and make sure we all win? We should lift everyone up and it brings more business here for all of us.

“We use Wakeman Coffee House (coffee) and they roast it specially for us,” continued Gavin. “They call it ‘Tina’s Blend,’ but it’s a Brazilian medium blend. If you like breakfast blends, you’ll love it. I’m bagging individual bags. I know Michael wants to have breakfast sandwiches at Everything Bagelry with his friends.”

Gavin said they have mutual support from Sydney companies and are committed to a diverse customer base.

“We already have interest from some local stores to carry our donuts,” she said. “And we hope to be able to expand to Oneonta and Delhi and possibly Mount Upton, so we expect to get pretty far.

Eat-in seating is limited at Tina’s, she said, but most mornings they offer seats in the adjacent pizzeria. She said she also has online ordering and “pickup racks where you can pick up your order.”

Find “Tina’s Old Fashioned Donuts” on Facebook for more information and access to order online.