D’oh! Whidbey Doughnuts closing shop

The day before Scott Parks got the keys to the space on Bayview Corner that would become Whidbey Doughnuts, he was in the middle of framing a door in his house, leaving behind a mitered corner and no molding down the side.

Nearly seven years later, it’s a home project he’ll finally be able to finish as he prepares to bid farewell to Whidbey Doughnuts, a popular spot for pastries, breakfast and lunch on South Whidbey.

Earlier this month, Parks announced the restaurant’s upcoming permanent closure, which is set for Tuesday, Sept. 3. Whidbey Doughnuts has rented the space in the historic Bayview Cash Store from Goosefoot since 2017.

Though Parks said there’s a certain hunger to find someone to blame, the truth is that the bakery operation was causing harm to the building’s delicate septic system. He explained that flour, once it combines with water and other substances, becomes a ball that clogs.

This is not a situation unique to the Bayview Cash Store; earlier this year, Seabiscuit Bakery near Langley’s Whidbey Airpark closed, citing septic system issues.

The business, which already has narrow margins for profit, could also not support a planned rent increase, Parks said. He runs Whidbey Doughnuts with his husband, Sean McArthur, and sister-in-law Kim McArthur.

“From day one Goosefoot has been so supportive of us and accommodating to shifting economic environments,” Parks said. “I’m so grateful for everything they’ve done for us.”

He added that Goosefoot waived rent for its tenants for a year and a half during the COVID-19 pandemic and slowly scaled it back up after that.

Elise Miller, the organization’s executive director, said the issue with the septic system has been building over time. About a year ago, a new $40,000 tank was installed with the hope that it would resolve some of the problems, but it hasn’t. The last major improvement was putting in the drain field in 2001.

The nonprofit entity has grown enormously over the past decade and is now turning its attention towards maintenance that has been deferred for too long.

“When you’re in the middle of something, it’s hard to see where the gaps are and it’s hard to put systems in,” Miller said. “We’re revamping a lot of things right now.”

She added that there has been a recent effort to bring rents up to market rate when they were way below previously. As a nonprofit, Goosefoot cannot subsidize for-profit businesses. New four-year leases that steadily ramp up are being drawn up for tenants.

Miller said there are a few “restaurant-oriented” options being weighed for the space that Whidbey Doughnuts occupies that will be far lighter on the building’s septic system.

“We’re really sorry, of course, to lose Whidbey Doughnuts,” she said. “We wish it would have been possible for them to stay.”

Regular customers – some of them stopping by as frequently as five to seven times per week – were dismayed to find that their favorite institution would soon be disappearing.

“This is like a gem on the necklace of the Bayview Corner,” Brian Pike, who lives a few miles away, said Wednesday. He often works in a notebook while eating a breakfast of fruit and yogurt, creating sketches and writing song lyrics.

Sometimes, he’s there early enough in the morning to overhear old-timers swapping stories of Langley long ago over coffee.

“They all love each other, the people who work here,” Pike observed. “They’re always laughing and singing. All of them are really good singers. They play really good 80s music.”

Other customers have appreciated Whidbey Doughnuts’ generous gluten-free offerings, including Alex Forrester.

Known as “Gluten-Free Alex,” Forrester, who could be found reading a book in the corner of the shop, said he has been to many restaurants in different parts of the country, but Whidbey Doughnuts has the best ambience. He ordered a veggie burger on gluten-free bread.

Karl and Jan Smith, who split a BLT, were devastated to hear the news about their favorite joint, which they’ve enjoyed taking their granddaughter and great-grandson to for gluten-free food.

“Despite the fact that it’s called the doughnut shop, their salads are also just really terrific,” Jan said.

“I’d buy the place, but I’ve never run a restaurant,” Karl said with a laugh.

Parks said it’s been hard to walk through the dining room this week without someone expressing their sadness.

“You fill an important role here,” John Sweval of South Whidbey told him. “And it’s definitely going to be missed.”

It’s possible that Whidbey Doughnuts could live on in some other location, but if that happens, Parks envisions it would be a scaled-down operation. But to avoid disappointing loyal customers, he’s not making any promises that it will be back.

“Anything could happen,” he said.

Oddly enough, Parks never pictured a restaurant as part of the plan, but since the space at the Bayview Cash Store allowed it, he set out to inform customers that there was more for sale than just the beloved round bits of dough.

“The town we came from in Massachusetts had five different doughnut places, and there were none here,” he said.

COVID was a turning point for the business. During the pandemic, Whidbey Doughnuts enabled online ordering and delivery, which allowed servers to become cooks and dishwashers to become delivery drivers. A total of 10,000 delivery menus were stuffed into mailboxes during that time, and Parks said it made a huge impact.

With the dining room shut down, Parks and his employees put up a green screen and filmed somewhere between 30 to 40 vignettes for the restaurant’s Facebook page advertising the different menu items people could order from home. His favorite sketches included a psychiatrist who had difficulty pronouncing “Whidbey.”

“I’m so proud of so many different things over the last seven years, and that’s one of the bigger ones,” Parks said.

During the past few years, the restaurant has been the place for locals to gather during a power outage because of its generator.

With its closure, Whidbey Doughnuts will surely leave behind a hole in the community.