Daniel Chaney
Owning a doughnut business was always in the cards for Constance and Jonathan Farro, co-founders of Conny & Jonny Doughnuts. For seven months, the couple bridged the gap in their long-distance relationship with a mutual love of the ringed confection.
“I was in California and he lived here,” Constance explains. “If I missed him, I’d go get a doughnut and send him a picture and he would do the same. It just kind of became our thing.”
Some couples have songs that bring them together—these two had delicious pastries. “Doughnuts were our mixtape,” Jonathan adds. The two even tied the knot on National Doughnut Day.
The couple’s doughnut-centric love story is a whirlwind. Constance made the move to Nashville in 2014, and, eager to start a new business, the couple naturally started experimenting with doughnuts. They wanted to bring a croissant-like doughnut to the Nashville market and began testing recipes in Constance’s duplex kitchen. They then dove onto the scene, slinging what they called “doughsants” at Pinewood Social on the weekends—but quickly, they realized they were in over their heads with the fledgling business.
Six months later, the newlyweds headed back to California.
“Jonathan and I both value excellence, so we decided if we would really do this we would do it well,” Constance says.
Jesse Marble Chamberlin
They enrolled in pastry school together in L.A., and worked at a doughnut shop on the side. Soon, they were back in Nashville and saw a need for more of the kind of traditional, yeast-raised doughnuts that they liked to make. Conny & Jonny Doughnuts was back in business in September 2018, serving up handcrafted yeast doughnuts at all Barista Parlor locations.
Conny & Jonny’s slogan, “Every Batch, Fresh from Scratch,” rings true. Working from a rented catering kitchen, the pair starts the process on Wednesdays, prepping glazes and toppings. Jonathan then works overnight leading up to and on the weekends, mixing the yeast-enhanced dough from scratch, before leaving it to rise. The doughnuts are then fried and glazed, and then hurried out to coffee shops before the morning rush. Jonathan’s delivery car, a Scion xD, is expertly outfitted to transport 700 doughnuts at a time.
As for flavors, the couple doesn’t dabble in trends. Instead, they aim to hit a note of nostalgia, asking themselves what tastes good at the moment. They use seasonal and local ingredients when they can, like peaches from The Peach Truck, strawberries from a farm in Clarksville, and mint from a friend’s garden.
“We sell two flavors to each coffee shop and have found that people get bored if we always have the same flavors, so we switch [things up] every two weeks or so,” Jonathan explains.
While the pair enjoys selling wholesale, a brick-and-mortar (or possibly, more than one) is on the horizon. Until then, you can nab one of their time-intensive creations on Fridays at Bode Hotel and Industrious Nashville Gulch; Fridays through Sundays at Crema, The Loading Dock East, Tempo, and Living Waters Brewing; and Saturdays and Sundays at all Barista Parlor locations. Get there early—wherever they are, they sell out fast.