MIDDLEBURG – Love Donuts and Smoothies opened last week, serving fresh-to-order donuts, smoothies coffee, and other cravings to hungry customers.

Manager Alex Ly said business slowly started to pick up right after sunrise on opening day. After that, the flow of customers remained steady to lunchtime.

“The first day of business was good,” he said. 

Love features a luminous display of blue and pink colors ordained on the walls, along with a beautiful display of donuts, breakfast sandwiches, croissants and kolaches behind the counter.

Sitting proudly in a large glass display, the warm, sweet treats seemingly greeted every new customer with the tempering aurora of smell as they entered.

Many were so impressed with the new local business, some customers were quick to pull out their phones to snap a quick video.

Those who were in a hurry used the drive-thru.

Ly and his girlfriend, owner Ngeecasiv Teng, moved from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, five months ago after owning another doughnut shop there.

When moving to their new home, the couple wanted to reimagine their former business with a new, Floridian twist.

One major difference between new and old is that Love’s offers a much wider variety of menu item options. Ly recommends the kolaches, which he said are very popular in Texas. The branding, menu display and color scheme on the walls are different from their previous location. Ly described their former location as just a regular donut shop, but Love’s new location offers so much more.

Ly said that he and Teng decided to shy away from word-of-mouth marketing before opening Love’s, which is located at 2475-7 Blanding Blvd.

“We just decided to open up and see what happens, other than putting a sign outside,” he said.

Nevertheless, their decision to set the businesses’ roots down at the busy city retail center was no mistake, especially since there aren’t any locally-owned doughnut shops in the area.

“That’s why we decided to put it there when it came up for rent,” Ly said.

The restaurant is open from 4 a.m.-4 p.m., seven days a week.