Conversations with Kelly Brewer

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly Brewer.

Hi Kelly, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Opened in late 2017, with the intent that we were tired of eating donuts loaded with preservatives and processed ingredients, so we began our journey by visiting craft donut shops all over the US, as well as reaching out to ones that we wanted to emulate and learn from..

We built a bakery team around a concept of providing hand-made donuts made with real ingredients, truly like no other shop in greater Cleveland. At one point we had two stores, one in Ohio City and one in a Brewery on the east side of downtown Cleveland, but we closed both over time and moved to our Rocky River location, where we just celebrated 8 years.

We believe that service to our customer is of equal importance to the quality of our donuts, and work really hard to hire wonderful people. The “Donut Experience” is something that resonates with people of all ages, and we have a saying, “Everyone pokes the display window, no matter how old or young.” We know that lifelong memories are made for families and individuals when they think about our donuts, and we take it very seriously.

Using our Rocky River store as our main production facility, we provide donuts daily to a major grocer, as well as several other wholesale accounts.

A major part of what do is providing Gluten-Free donuts as well. It was difficult at first to build a great gluten-free dough, but we have gotten pretty good at it and they are popular all over the midwest. People come from neighboring states for them.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No, Covid hit us hard and in a way, we are still dealing with it. The entire food/restaurant industry has changed, and those that haven’t adapted are out of business. We hustled by doing constant delivery and curbside and were fortunate to be able to stay open.

Our donuts are very specifically produced and changes in environmental conditions can affect them. We have been fortunate to have an exceptional team of decorators that have really helped us over the years to maintain a consistent look. It wasn’t always the case in the beginning.

We don’t really consider ourselves to have competitors because we have great respect for all the other donut shops that have to get up at the wee hours of the morning.

Our pricing has really not changed too much, but it can be affected my major fluctuations in the cost of our core resources, like eggs and butter. There were times for a period in 2025 that we had to literally drive great distances to find the best price and availability of eggs.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I love Cleveland with all my heart. Our donut shop is a love letter to the people that live in this region. We take the good with the bad in stride and we are great at celebrating our victories, but also consoling in things that bond us, like cold weather and a losing Browns football (One Day!).

After a 20+ year career in tourism, literally selling Cleveland to outside groups for conventions and events, I felt it was time to do something that was genuine to this region. When people visit Cleveland, there are certain “Must go” places for food, entertainment and attractions, we are most proud that we are on that list.

One of our proudest moments came when we entered a fancy donut contest right before Covid. We took only our signature Vanilla Bean Glazed and all the other donut shops were laughing that we didn’t bring something super fancy and unique. When we walked away with the trophy for Best Classic Donut in Cleveland, we had a drop the mike moment that we really enjoyed. Our process is unprocessed,, we don’t over-sugar, and you will never see novelty flavors like fruity pebbles. Our donuts are simply elegant and meant to be enjoyed as a celebration of the fresh ingredients that go into them, most of which is sourced locally from our farmer friends.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
I grew up in a household with a single mother raising three kids in Findlay, Ohio. We didn’t have much, but our mother always made sure that we had a great childhood. Walking home from elementary school, I regularly stopped at the local bakery to get a Boston Cream or Jelly Donut. They cost $.25 cents and my mom always made sure there was an extra quarter with my lunch money. That is how my love for donuts began.

Pricing:

• Discounts are priced at the dozen and 1/2 dozen
• Although we are the only ones that use all real ingredients, we are not the most expensive donuts in the region

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bigmouthdonut.com
• Instagram: @bigmouthdonut
• Facebook: @bigmouthdonut