Question of the Day - 29 April 2024

Carl's is an institution in Las Vegas, though most people never heard the name before the Donut Hole opened downtown in February. 

Carl Sanders started his eponymous company with his wife Lyn, selling homemade donuts at a motel they owned in Monterrey Park, California, just east of Los Angeles, in the early 1960s. The donuts were a hit and the Sanderses moved their business to Las Vegas a few years later, operating out of a Woolworth's-type variety store called Wonder World, on Decatur near Vegas Drive a couple of blocks north of what's now Meadows Mall. Again, the donuts were popular. But one little detail put a damper on the business: Many of the Wonder World products, especially the clothing, wound up smelling like fried dough and sugar. Oops.

The owner of Wonder World, however, liked Carl and Lyn and offered them a location in a new storefront he'd just acquired. Wonder World continued to sell their donuts, turning Carl's into a wholesale operation. 

Later, Carl's moved to a new bakery on S. Highland Drive, where it remained for decades. 

Carl, who had a background in grocery-store management, then had a brainstorm. What if he visited all the convenience stores around town and offered to consign them fresh donuts and other baked goods? When they sold, he collected the wholesale proceeds and replenished the supply. Over time, he started also providing glass showcases assembled by Carl's father Burt in the Sanders' garage and according to local legend, Carl was the first to sell fresh baked goods in convenience stores in the U.S., starting the trend that we're all familiar with today. 

Carl and Lyn moved into a larger commercial kitchen along the way, but also got divorced. Carl moved back to California, while Lyn stayed in Vegas with their children. Lyn bought out Carl, continued to run and grow Carl's Donuts, and moved again into a 25,000-square-foot facility. At that time, the Highland store closed and the Sanderses were out of the retail business. 

They opened their first retail store in many years in 2018 on E. Sunset Road near Pecos. But the wholesale end of things kept getting more and more successfu and Carl's Donuts now has more than 500 customers nationwide, selling tens of millions of donuts and other bakery products every year. Carl's signature donuts are the sour-cream old-fashioned and the apple fritter. 

Which brings us to February. By now, Carl's is being run by third-generation Sanderses. The company was taken over by Carl and Lyn's son, daughter, and daughter-in-law; a granddaughter, Amber Ramsay, is now the chief operations officer. The "kids" expanded into a 1,150-square-foot store at 124 South 6th Street, one block from Fremont Street and Las Vegas Blvd., where the new signature donuts are the maple bacon and strawberry cream. 

When the nearly 60-year-old donut company expanded downtown, it garnered some attention in the media and reinvigorated the Carl's brand.